When the Jaguar Leaps

Tata's impeccable track record of minimalist intervention in foreign acquisitions suffered a bit when It came to its largest purchase—Corus

- George P. J.

• APPOINTED TATA SONS CHAIRMAN IN 1991, RATAN TATA’S STRATEGY IN THE LATE 90S FOCUSED ON ACQUIRING COMPANIES THAT COULD HELP TATA ENTER HIGHER-MARGIN MARKETS, ESPECIALLY INTERNATIONALLY.

ON September 30, the last of the blast furnaces at the Port Talbot steel mill was shut down. With that, a Wales town that has lived and breathed steel production since 1902 stepped into the unknown. About 2,800 jobs will be lost in this southern coastal town as the plant replaces the blast furnaces with arc reactors. For Britain, it also spells the end of an era going back to the Industrial Revolution as it loses its ability to produce primary steel-the incoming electric arc reactors will only be able to reprocess scrap metal.

At the heart of all these regional and national changes in the UK is a familiar nameTata Steel-and a story of global expansion driven by one man.

Go Forth and Acquire In the 1980s and 1990s, suspicions about foreign ownership were still very much in the air in India. It had been only a few years since George Fernandes, Industries Minister in the Janata Party government, had thrown Coca-Cola and IBM out of the country. For companies wanting to enter the Indian market, one available route was joint ventures (JVs). With regulatory restrictions in India against 100 per cent foreign ownership, Tata became a favoured local partner for many companies, including for IBM to re-enter the market and for Pepsi to try its luck where Coke had burnt its fingers. These JVs not only brought in foreign brands to India but also gave Tata exposure to new products and technologies, providing them an edge over domestic competition.