Tata sees no big impact of credit crunch

By Rina Chandran

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Tata Group has not seen a significant fallout from the global credit crunch and does not expect it will have a big impact on its acquisition appetite, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

The increasingly international salt-to-software group made corporate India's biggest overseas acquisition yet earlier this year, the $12.9 billion purchase of Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus by Tata Steel Ltd (TISC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and is in the running to buy the Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The credit squeeze resulting from the subprime crisis has made financing more costly and harder to come by globally, and is expected to slow the pace of merger and acquisition activity.

"So far there hasn't been any measurable impact on our business," Alan Rosling, executive director of Tata Sons, the holding company that oversees the group's businesses, said at the Reuters India Investment Summit.

"We don't expect any dramatic impact ... the impact on us will perhaps be less than on other people because we're a strategic industrial buyer with a strong balance sheet," said Rosling, who spearheads the group's international drive.

"There may well be some opportunities for us in this."

Tata Motors (TAMO.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), India's top vehicle maker, is on Ford's shortlist for the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, along with a joint bid from rival Mahindra & Mahindra (MAHM.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Apollo Partners, and JP Morgan-backed One Equity Partners (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Rosling declined to comment directly on the deal. He later made a general observation that in the current credit situation, the group may have an edge over private equity firms in competing for assets.   Continued...