Oct. 13—NEW DELHI — Talace Pvt. Ltd, the company set up by the Tata Group to acquire Air India, is eyeing a broad range of business opportunities in the transportation sector, going beyond the national carrier's operations.
These include rail, rapid transit and metro services, running training colleges in the transportation sector and production of parts of transportation and communication equipment, showed regulatory filings by the company.
Talace aims to leverage the diversified group's manufacturing prowess to get into several auxiliary businesses including designing, production and repair of parts, component and accessories of equipment that are needed in the mobility business, showed Talace's charter filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Talace's charter also allows it to get into the business of repair, overhaul and assembling of accessories and instruments needed in the business for itself or other entities.
The charter allows the company to acquire and amalgamate businesses it considers advantageous.
The first directors of Talace are Tata Sons' group chief financial officer Saurabh Agrawal, Tata Sons' chief finance officer Eruch N. Kapadia and senior vice president Nipun Aggarwal. Kapadia is also part of the Tata Sons board committee on asset liability management, the group said on its website.
Tata Group won the Air India business in the government's disinvestment process by quoting INR18,000 crore as the enterprise value of the national carrier.
Besides full ownership of Air India, a full-service airline operating in domestic and international markets, Talace will also get full ownership of Air India Express, a low-cost carrier and 50% in the joint venture Air India SATS (airport services on ground and cargo handling).
Talace would also engage in the business of providing cabin service, ramp services, ground handling services, cargo handling services, security functions and field operation services for itself and to other carriers, regulatory documents showed. A spokesperson for Tata Group said in response to an emailed query that the conglomerate has no comment to offer.
Besides budget carrier AirAsia (India), a joint venture with AirAsia (Investment) Ltd, the Tata Group operates full service domestic carrier Vistara in a joint venture with Singapore Airlines.
The pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to the fortunes of airlines as the travel and tourism industry suffered heavily.
One key challenge before the Tata Group is to streamline Air India's operations, manage costs and leverage the synergy with the existing operations in the aviation and allied industries to turn around the national carrier.
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