Tata Steel to double borrowings to Rs40,000 crore

12 August 2008

Mumbai: Tata Steel along with Corus has realised synergy benefits of $76 million in fiscal 2008, chairman Ratan Tata said in the company's annual report for 2007-08.

He said Tata Steel – currently the sixth largest steel producer in the world -  has reaped manufacturing gains while Corus has benefited from lower taxes, shared service and corporate governance.

''Tata Steel has derived the benefits in the area of manufacturing, whereas in Corus, the benefits are from reduction of taxation and in shared services in the area of legal, investor relations etc, in the corporate centre,'' Tata said.

A joint integration teams of the two entities have identified synergies worth $450 million and has drawn up action plan to realise this by the end of March 2010, he said.

The Tata Steel Group, that now includes Corus, is committed to investing in leading edge technology, process innovation and product development and has targeted return on its existing investment of 30 per cent against the current 19 per cent over the next five years, said Jean-Sebastien Jacques, group director (strategy), Tata Steel.

The group is looking at further downstream and upstream integration aimed at achieving 100 per cent raw material self-sufficiency in India and around 50 per cent self-sufficiency in Europe, he said.