Tata Group's revenue declined 4.6% to $103 billion in 2015-16 due to global political uncertainty, a steep reduction in commodity prices and currency volatility, chairman Cyrus Mistry said on Friday.
Mistry, speaking at the Tata Annual Group Leadership Conference 2016, also said that 16 companies in the group registered a turnover of over $500 million and 10 of those recorded revenue of over $1 billion.
International revenue, around $70 billion, constituted 69% of the group’s total. Tata Group’s overseas businesses include British luxury carmaker Jaguar and Land Rover as well as Tata Steel Europe.
Total revenue of India’s biggest corporate conglomerate rose, however, in rupee terms to Rs 672,408 crore from Rs 658,432 crore the previous year. A weaker rupee had pushed up the rupee value of sales last year.
Mistry said the group invested around $9 billion worldwide during the year, contributing to a $28 billion capital spent over the past three years. This capital investment programme delivered a number of growth-oriented projects, he said. These included the Tata group’s largest greenfield infrastructure project, the new steel plant at Kalinganagar in Odisha, which commenced commercial production on 25 May 2016.
Mistry said the group's 29 listed firms closed 2015-16 with a market capitalisation of Rs 771,191 crore ($116 billion). This was 7.4% lower than the year before but beat the 9.4% decline in the 30-stock benchmark index Sensex.
Indian stocks have rocketed in the past four months over prospects of a consumption boom led by higher pay for government employees and rise in rural demand due to good monsoon. Expectations of the passage in parliament of a law to implement the goods and services tax, the biggest tax reform in decades, has helped as well.
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