Two Tata cos raise over Rs 700 cr from TTSL stake sale

Two Tata group companies today raised a total of Rs 741.72 crore by selling part of their stake in Tata Teleservices (TTSL), the privately held flagship telecom business of the group.

Tata Communication sources said that the company sold one per cent of its stake in TTSL to Japan's telecom company NTT DoCoMo for Rs 424 crore. Tata Power has sold part of its stake in TTSL for Rs 316.72 crore, but did not reveal the buyer or the stake size.

Tata Power shares jumped 7.12 per cent to close at Rs 740.20 while Tata Communications scrip jumped as much as 2.13 per cent to touch Rs 523.15.

The deals are learnt to be part of NTT DoCoMo's $2.7 billion investment to pick up a 26 per cent in Tata Teleservices, in which DoCoMo picked up the stake through a combination of fresh shares (20 per cent will be through this route) and six per cent through the acquisition of shares from the existing promoters.

After the stake sale and infusion of fresh equity, Tata Communication's equity will fall to 10.6 per cent stake in TTSL. Tata Communication (formerly VSNL) held 14.43 per cent stake in TTSL before NTT DoCoMo came into the picture.

"The company has received an amount of about Rs 424 crore pursuant to sale of its partial holdings in Tata Teleservices," Tata Communications said in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.