GOING GLOBAL

London, Oct. 2 (pti): The Tata group is planning to take the inorganic route to expand in the UK after it acquired Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus this year. The group may foray into leather footwear.

The Tatas have embarked upon a brand-building exercise in the UK, which it considers as the gateway to doing business in Europe and other foreign countries.

The group has appointed public relations firm Financial Dynamics, said S.A. Hasan, managing director of Tata Ltd, the uk-based subsidiary .

Financial Dynamics is a financial communications consultancy firm that provides services aimed at maximising shareholder value and enhancing and protecting a company’s reputation and brand value.

Financial Dynamics will have to work towards building the Tata brand in the uk.

“Despite being present here for 100 years, initially we did not do this as our presence was not big and there were not many products ... Today we have the size and the time has come to build our brand value here,” Hasan said.

Work on the communications strategy is in the final stages.

Acquisition plans

“The Jaguar-Land Rover deal is already in the offing in the automotive sector ... We also see a valuable proposition in the leather footwear segment.. Besides, we could also look at inorganic growth opportunities in sectors where we are already present as well as the new areas,” Hasan said.

“The UK is the largest market for the group after India and is generating revenues worth more than $7 billion every year ... Still there is a lot of growth potential left here,” he added.

Hasan expects this amount to increase to $9-10 billion by 2010 with a fair amount of contribution from all businesses, including steel.

“There must be an India-advantage for any deal to take place ... There must be something we can do that they (the target company) are not able to do alone,” he said.

The group may also look at investments at the ipo or pre-ipo stages as well as the small and medium enterprise segments and new-age areas such as biotechnology, biogas and nano-technology.