Tata to invest $35 bln over 3 years, focus on new businesses

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Tata group will invest about $35 billion over the next three years to focus on new business areas such as infrastructure, defence and aerospace, as well as expanding its global footprint.

The salt-to-software group has operations in more than 100 countries and combined revenue of $103 billion at the end of the fiscal year in March, with 67 percent coming from outside India.

The Tata group includes Tata Motors Ltd, owner of the Jaguar Land Rover brands, as well as IT outsourcing services provider Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd and dozens of other companies.

Mumbai-headquartered Tata group is "creating a special focus" on defence and aerospace, retail, infrastructure and finance, Tata Sons, the group's holding company, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Last year, Tesco entered into a joint venture agreement with a unit of Tata that will see the British retailer invest $140 million and become the first foreign supermarket to enter the country's $500 billion retail sector.

Tata's focus on infrastructure comes amid investors' hope of a turnaround in a sector that has been badly hit by the local economic slowdown. The new government is focussing on building infrastructure to revive growth.

To outperform markets, each Tata company will "sharply focus on performance, strive for excellence for global competitiveness (and) seek to achieve global or national scale," Tata Sons said.

"As a part of this strategy, the group centre will strongly champion companies which are world class and, where necessary, facilitate creation of new companies," it said in the statement, without giving details.

The strategy will also include supporting group companies to restructure businesses that do not have the potential to meet performance in the long term, the conglomerate said.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; editing by David Clarke)