Shares of Tata Group companies in which Tata Sons holds stakes fell sharply on Friday, September 18, after Tata Trusts, the holding company’s majority shareholder, said it had not agreed to a listing of the conglomerate’s parent. Tata Chemicals, which owns a 2.53% stake in Tata Sons, plunged more than 10%, its steepest decline since March 2024, erasing Thursday’s 6.5% gain.
The stock had surged a day earlier after Tata Sons said it would consider a public listing and the extending of Chairman N Chandrasekaran’s tenure by another five years. Tata Investment Corp declined as much as 5.1% before paring losses, while Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles fell 3.2%.
Tata Consultancy Services, the group’s largest listed company by market value, also declined by a similar magnitude, wiping out about ₹27,000 crore in market value. The combined decline across the Tata Group companies took the group’s market value erosion to nearly ₹40,000 crore.
The Tata Group currently has a combined market capitalisation of about ₹24 lakh crore. Tata Trusts, a group of 13 charitable entities that collectively hold a 66% stake in Tata Sons, said in a statement after market hours on Thursday that a listing would “destroy” the character of the holding company.
It added that the Tata Sons board must explore all available options. The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which owns an 18.4% stake in Tata Sons, has been seeking to monetise part of its holding to help retire debt. Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry has said a public listing of Tata Sons is “a social and moral imperative” and would strengthen transparency and public accountability at the conglomerate.
Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, owned by the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, also declined in Friday’s trade and was down about 3%. Tata Trusts Chair Noel Tata said the group’s ownership structure had stood the test of time for more than a century, warning that “a listing will destroy its character and strike at the heart of this principle.”The Reserve Bank of India last week declined to exempt Tata Sons from rules requiring it to list after classifying the company as an upper-layer non-bank financial company.
We asked a few legal experts