Tata Group, Tata Sons and Tata Trusts: How India's salt-to-software business empire works

With Noel Tata succeeding late half-brother and industrial icon Ratan Tata as Tata Trusts chairman, many are wondering how Tata Trusts is linked to Tata Group and Tata Sons.

Employing more than 10 lakh people, the total revenue of Tata Group companies in 2023-24 amounted to $165 billion. The 26 publicly listed Tata companies have a combined market valuation of $365 billion as on March 31, 2024, according to the company website.

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Tata Sons

Tata Sons Pvt Ltd is the principal holding company and promoter of the salt-to-software conglomerate, Tata Group, with stakes in all the group firms. The chairman of Tata Sons is usually appointed as the chairman of Tata Group. N. Chandrasekaran, the current chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group, took over in January 2017 following the ouster of Cyrus Mistry.

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Established in 1917 and registered in Mumbai, Tata Sons also owns the Tata trademarks registered in India and abroad. All firms using the Tata brand are signatories to Tata Sons' Brand Equity & Business Promotion (BEBP) agreement, which makes it mandatory for these companies to adopt the Tata Code of Conduct and Tata Business Excellence Model.

Tata Trusts

Tata Trusts, the philanthropic arm endowed by Tata family members, owns 66 per cent equities in Tata Sons. The largest of these trusts are the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust. They support education, health, art, culture and livelihood generation.

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Another shareholder of Tata Sons is the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which holds an 18.5 per cent stake in the company. In a bid to monetise a part of its stake and pay off its debts, the SP Group had in September asked the unlisted company to consider an IPO. However, Tata Sons has ruled out any plan to go public.

Tata Sons is currently registered as a non-banking finance company (NBFC). However, an RBI circular mandating all NBFC upper layer firms to be listed by September 2025 had raised speculations that Tata Sons is preparing of an IPO earlier this year. In order to avoid getting listed, Tata Sons sought clearance from RBI to surrender its NBFC registration and continue as an unregistered core investment company (CIC) and cleared its Rs 21,813 crore debts in March 2024.