Unless you are an avowed Tata Group follower, chances are you’ve not heard of (or paid heed to) one 85-year-old Tata entity in the 154-year-old conglomerate—Tata Investment Corporation Ltd (TICL). Its share price has seen an impressive surge of 65% in 2022, even when the S&P BSE Sensex is down 2% since January, faring much better than those of its much larger cousins. As a minor holding company, TICL lacks the size of Tata Sons, the conglomerate’s main holding company, or Tata Industries, the group incubator. Though there was a time when it incubated businesses like what Tata Industries does today. (The latter set up the e-commerce venture Tata CLiQ and the telemedicine service Tata Health, among others.) But, the world of investment sometimes works on bizarre principles. Even with the stock surge, TICL trades at a 40% discount to the value of its assets, which were worth ~US$2.5 billion as of March. And unlike its ‘holdco’ peer Bajaj Holdings and Investment Ltd, TICL gets little attention from domestic or institutional investors. What in the name of a storied company is going on? Since Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata gave up the chairmanship of the company in 1965—he continued to head Tata Sons till his retirement in 1991—TICL has remained in the shadows of its illustrious group companies. Neither JRD’s successor, Ratan Tata, nor Chandrasekaran was chairman of TICL. Noel Tata, Ratan Tata’s half-brother, has held that position since 2010. We digs into the company's financials rally in TICL shares is not because investors are exhilarated by the fundamentals of its business.
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