India Inc continues to be on a shopping spree , with the Tata Group leading the race.

After their $12 billion acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus early this year to create one of the world’s largest steel company, the Tata automobiles are now eying to acquire the Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford in a deal worth about 1 billion pounds!

As India Inc continues to grow stronger, the following is a list of acquisitions by the Tata Group in the past few years.

  • Feb 2000 – Tetley tea company, $407 million
  • March 2004 – Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company, $102 million
  • Aug 2004 – NatSteel’s steel business, $292 million
  • Nov 2004 – Tyco Global Network, $130 million
  • July 2005 – Teleglobe International Holdings, $239 million
  • Dec 2005 – Millennium Steel, Thailand, $167 million
  • Dec 2005 – Brunner Mond Group, $120 million
  • June 2006 – Eight OClock Coffee, $220 million
  • Nov 2006 – Ritz Carlton Boston, $170 million
  • Jan 2007 – Corus, $11.3 billion
  • March 2007 – Bumi Resources, $1.1 billion
  • April 2007 – Campton Place Hotel, San Francisco, $60 million

According to the latest news reports , Ford Motors has accepted the Tata’s bid to acquire its Jaguar and Land Rover brands. With this acquisition over 15000 employees of Ford in UK will come under Tata’s payrolls.

At the same time, Tatas are all set to unveil their new high-quality low-cost car, more popularly known as the people’s car manufactured using innovative technology, which will be the world’s cheapest car, with no compromise on quality, at just about 1200 pounds per car!

The Tata Group’s attempt to takeover a hotel chain in US, the Orient Express Hotels, (which most of us in India have not even heard about!), was met with unprofessional comments by the CEO, Paul White of the Orient Hotels, resulting in Tatas demanding an apology from him.

Looks like some people in the west are unable to digest the rise of India! But then, facts are facts, whether you like it or not

After their opposition to offshoring to India, some of these narrow minded Americans and Europeans now seem to be scared by the series of acquisitions by Indian companies. It happened with Mittal earlier when his Mittal Steel took over Arcelor, and now its with Tatas.

Mr White has opposed the Tatas offer saying, it can’t happen between your predominantly domestic Indian hotel chain and our global portfolio of luxury hotels ! A statement that is full of arrogance, ill-informed and more than anything else, a clear symbol of frustration and losing grounds.

The issue with people like Mr.White is that they think that anything American is an International Brand and all other products are local brands. What a joke! Does he mean domestic Indian hotels are not luxury hotels? Ignorance at its heights.

Grow up Mr White, there are other colors too. Do you know the revenues of Tata Group in 2006-07? It is about $29 billion! And what is that of Orient Express Hotels ? Less than $0.5 billion!

By the way, Tata Group already has a 11.5% MAJORITY stake in Orient Express Hotels!

The Indian is coming ;)

Taj Palace Hotel, Mumbai
One of the Palace Hotels owned by Tata Group in India