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Virendra Verma

MUMBAI, April 18

TATA group companies have hiked their stake in retailing company, Trent, in the last quarter through market purchases.

The holding of the group has increased by 1.86 per cent from 26.48 per cent at the end of December 2002 to 28.34 per cent at the end of March 2003.

According to the shareholding pattern filed by the company with stock exchanges, one of the Tata group companies, Fiora Services, acquired 1.22 per cent stake during the last quarter and Tata Sons increased its holding by 0.64 per cent during the January-March quarter.

At the end of March 2003 quarter, the holding of Tata Sons in Trent is 21.79 per cent. Other Tata group companies that have stake in Trent are Aftab Investment (3.44 per cent), Tata Investment Corporation (1.89 per cent) and Fiora Services (1.22 per cent).

The purchase of shares through the creeping acquisition route has been made at a time when the stock price of the company has fallen during the period. Between January and March, the price fell by 10.5 per cent from Rs 170 to Rs 152.20 on BSE. On Thursday, the stock closed at Rs 148.50 on BSE.

Brokers said the purchase of the shares would have cost Tata group between Rs 3.75 crore to Rs 4 crore.

Analysts said the acquisition of shares by Tata group gains significance as the country's largest business group has decided to focus on the retailing business and Trent retail stores under the `Westside' brand has been expanding across the various cities.

The increased interest in the company by other market participants is also seen from the increase in the FIIs stake in the company.

During the last quarter, the stake of FIIs increased from 4.36 per cent to 5.07 per cent However, there was marginal decline in the holding by mutual funds.

Their holding declined from 10.4 per cent to 9.65 per cent. Among the largest shareholders (after Tatas), Alliance Mutual Fund holding declined from 7.41 per cent to 6.79 per cent.

Even the broker, Mr Kamal Karba's holding in the company declined marginally from 2.29 per cent to 1.96 per cent. However, the holding of Ms Usha Kabra remained constant at 2 per cent.

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