Tata Motors holders push to list ADR to boost value

Knight Assets & Co, which advises funds owning stock in Tata Motors Ltd, is pushing India's largest automaker to list its Class A shares on the New York Stock Exchange to boost shareholder value. Tata said it had no plans to list these shares in New York presently.

Tata Motors' ordinary and Class A shares - which carry a 10th of the voting rights - are "materially undervalued" and worth atleast Rs 700 apiece, London-based Knight Assets said in a statement on Wednesday. They traded at Rs 445.8 and Rs 293, respectively, at 11:43 am in Mumbai.

Knight Assets said it sent a letter to the Mumbai-based company on June 10 and met with management on June 20 to present its proposals. Tata Motors currently has no plans to list shares in New York, Minari Shah, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

"The solutions we have presented to the company, most notably the NYSE listing of an ADR for the 'A' shares, can correct this irrational discrepancy," Akshay Naheta, managing partner of Knight Assets, said in the statement.