Tata Chemicals fell over 10% on Friday, September 18, marking its steepest drop since March 2024 and completely erasing the 6.5% gain it posted the previous day. The sharp reversal happened after Tata Trusts, which holds a 66% stake in Tata Sons, explicitly stated it had not agreed to a public listing of the conglomerate’s parent entity.
The contagion spread quickly. Tata Investment Corp slid as much as 5.1% before paring losses, while Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles dropped 3.2%. Tata Consultancy Services, the group’s largest listed company by market value, also fell by a similar magnitude, wiping out approximately ₹27,000 crore in market value. This collective sell-off brought the total market value erosion for the Tata Group to nearly ₹40,000 crore, against a combined market capitalisation of roughly ₹24 lakh crore.
Tata Trusts Chair Noel Tata warned that a listing would “destroy its character and strike at the heart of this principle.” The trust, comprising 13 charitable entities, issued a statement after market hours on Thursday, insisting that the Tata Sons board must explore all available options rather than proceed with an IPO. This stance directly contradicts the optimism shown by Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which owns an 18.4% stake and has been seeking to monetise part of its holding to retire debt.
Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry has previously called a listing “a social and moral imperative” to strengthen transparency. Consequently, Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s Afcons Infrastructure Ltd also declined about 3% in Friday’s trade. The deadlock now follows the Reserve Bank of India’s decision last week to classify Tata Sons as an upper-layer non-bank financial company, requiring it to list unless an exemption is granted—a move the central bank has not made.