Tata Group favours startups, joint ventures over acquisitions in China

06 November 2007

Concerns of corporate governance, high asset prices and regulatory curbs have tended to deter the group''s planned acquisitions in China earlier, he said on the sidelines of a business conference in Beijing.

Currently, group company Tata Steel operates finishing plants in China while Tata Motors sources automotive components there.

The Tata Group, following its $12.9 billion acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus by group company Tata Steel, is expected to earn more overseas than in India in the current fiscal year ending March 2008.

Corus is expected to account for 60 per cent of Tata Steel''s profit this year.

While the group wants to expand its presence in China and other overseas markets it also wants to strike a balance between hunting for deals and investing more in India, its core market.

Tata Steel, had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chhattisgarh government in June 2005 to invest Rs10,000 crore to build a five-million-tonne per annum steel plant in two phases in the tribal Bastar district.