Tata Investment Corporation (TICL) is a non-banking financial company. Earlier named The Investment Corporation of India, the company is primarily involved in investing in long-term investments such as equity shares and equity-related securities.
The company was promoted by Tata Sons Pvt Ltd., in 1937, under the name The Investment Corporation of India Limited. The company remained a closely held company till 1959, when it became one of the few publicly held investment companies listed on the Stock Exchange, Mumbai. During the 1960s and 1970s the company’s activities underwent a gradual transformation from assisting in the establishment of new ventures, to acting as an investment company with a diversified portfolio of investments.
The original inspiration for launching Tata Investment Corporation Limited was to help set up and nurture small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and their companies. For many years after its inception, the Company played a role of a catalyst in promoting long term investments in the country and was instrumental in the promotion of projects with new Indian entrepreneurs and foreign collaborators whilst simultaneously taking minority equity stakes in such new projects. This promotional role of TICL resulted in the formation of many companies which were well known a few decades ago such as, Associated Bearing Co Ltd. (now SKF Bearings (India) Ltd.), Ceat Tyres Ltd. (now Ceat Ltd), National Rayon Corporation, companies promoted by the Ghia family and others, some of which are even today listed on the stock exchange.
In the earlier years, TICL also had a subsidiary company by the name of Investor Machine Tools Ltd. whose plant located near Pune was subsequently taken over by Tata Motors Ltd. (which was then known as Telco) for building up the machine tools division. Apart from growing its own investment activities, TICL also expanded inorganically by merging the investment activities of Investa Ltd. and Varuna Investments Ltd. with itself. TICL has an exemplary dividend record having declared dividend every year since inception, barring the first year.
The Company became a subsidiary of Tata Sons Pvt Ltd. in February, 2008. Tata Sons, together with other Tata companies, holds approximately 73.38% of the paid-up capital of Tata Investment Corporation Limited.
Business area of the company
Tata Investment is a NBFC registered with the Reserve Bank of India under the category Investment Company. The company’s activities comprise primarily of investing in long term investments in equity shares, debt instruments, listed and unlisted, and equity related securities of companies in a wide range of industries. The major sources of income of the Company consist of dividend, interest and profit on sale of investments.
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