MUMBAI: Total income of almost Rs 4,500 crore. Net profit Rs 3,780 crore, which translates into an earnings per share (EPS) of Rs 91,155. To top it – reserves of  over Rs 15,000 crore.

Tata Sons posted its best-ever results in FY08 but the numbers do not tell the real story because 60% of Tata Sons income came from sale of shares in its subsidiary company - TCS.

Tata Sons received over Rs 1,500 crore of  dividend income from its subsidiaries. A major chunk of that amount came from TCS. Tata Sons also sold close to 2.5 crore shares in the IT company worth roughly Rs 2,500 crore.

Where was that money spent? The directors report of Tata Sons throws some light... it says: "...the dividend income supplemented by the profit made on sale of investments was utilised to augment the resources of the company for increasing the long-term investments in promoted companies. In addition, significant investments were made to increase the shareholding in several listed operating Tata companies… "

Among the listed ones, Tata Sons significantly increased its stake in Tata Steel, Indian Hotels, Tata Power, Tata Tea and Trent. The book value of  Tata Sons' investments increased by almost Rs 10,000 crore in FY08 to over Rs 23,000 crore. While it held a healthy cash and bank balance of Rs 3,600 crore, the company's debts increased by a whopping Rs 4,500 crore to a figure of almost Rs 9,000 crore. Over Rs 5,000 crore of this is unsecured loans, including a Rs 1,250 crore debenture issue.

Tata Sons also raised just over Rs 2,500 crore by issuing preference shares to two trusts - Jamsetji Tata  and Navajbhai Ratan Tata Trust.

There is no major change in equity shareholding pattern of Tata Sons with Sir Dorabji Tata and Sir Ratan Tata Trust continuing to hold over 51% stake in Tata Group's holding company.

TATA SONS
                                FY08          FY07  ( Rs in cr )
Income                   4,476           3,848
PAT                          3,780           3,336
EPS (in Rs)          91,155        82,322
Reserves               15,524        12,123
Dividend Income      1,578          1,310
Other Income            2,609          2,325

TATA SONS: FY08
Cash & Bank balance – Rs 3673cr
Total Debt    -  Rs 8,741cr
Secured Loans – Rs 3400cr
Unsecured Loans – Rs 5341cr
Debentures  – Rs 2000cr
Short-term loans – Rs 2000cr

Preference Capital
Jamsetji Tata Trust – Rs 1600cr
Navajbhai Ratan Tata Trust – Rs 1000cr