MUMBAI (Reuters) -Indian conglomerate Tata Group has sought a formal waiver from the central bank to avoid listing Tata Sons, its holding company and non-banking finance firm, on stock exchanges, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
In seeking the waiver, Tata Sons told the central bank it has used the proceeds from selling $1.1 billion worth of shares in Tata Consultancy Services last month to pay off loans to foreign and local lenders, the news agency reported.
Tata Sons’ borrowings stood at 202.74 billion rupees ($2.43 billion) as of March 31, 2023. If it is able to lower its debt to below 1 billion rupees, it could cease to be classified as an upper-layer NBFC by the RBI and avoid listing.
Tata Group and the RBI did not immediately reply to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Tata Sons must be listed on or before September 2025 to adhere to an RBI regulation that large non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) list their shares within three years. ($1 = 83.4636 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
