Ratan Tata asks investors to be patient
Ratan Tata asks investors to be patient
Mumbai: Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Steel Ltd, told shareholders to exercise patience with the company’s European operations that are proving to be a drag on its financials.
“We are in abnormal times. You don’t feel it as much here as it is felt there (in Europe). Please bear with us. There is only so much the company can do and we are doing all we can," said Tata during the company’s annual general meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.
“This is all we can do without shutting plants, which other manufacturers are doing," Tata said, adding the company needed to take “hard decisions" to restructure its operations as fiscal 2012 was a difficult year. He said the company had the “fortitude to see itself through".
He pointed out that when Tata Steel had acquired Corus—rechristened Tata Steel Europe—in 2007, the European steelmaker was “neglected from the investment point of view". “So it stood at a disadvantage," said Tata pointing out that additional investments were needed in the European subsidiary but the global financial meltdown in 2008-09, followed by the current euro crisis, had eroded the management’s ability to make heavy investments.
bhuma.s@livemint.com
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