Tata Int'l to tie up with Japanese, Swiss firms

Tata International Ltd will invest $100 million to form two joint ventures with the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corp. and the Switzerland-based commodities trader Mercuria, as the $3.6 billion privately held trading business of Tata Sons seeks to scale up global operations.

- Varun Sood & Satish John

Last Friday, the board of Tata Sons approved its trading subsidiary to form a joint venture with Mitsubishi Corp.'s Mobility Group for a multi-brand distribution business in Africa, an executive privy to the development said. Tata will invest $51 million to acquire a 51% stake, while Mitsubishi will invest $49 million in the new entity, the name of which will be formalized in the coming months.

Tata International also agreed to form a partnership with Mercuria, the trading house with $110 billion in revenue. Mercuria and Tata will form a 51:49 joint venture company, which will engage in physical and derivatives trading of energy, metals, freight and agricultural commodities. The two partners will jointly infuse $100 million into Meta, a holding company, in proportion to their equity stake.