Tata Sons IPO: Why Tata Chemicals may be the biggest beneficiary although Tata Motors, Tata Steel own bigger stake

Market is currently buzzing with expectations around the much-awaited Tata Sons IPO, with Tata Group stocks seeing sharp swings as a corporate battle unfolds at the salt-to-metals conglomerate. Tata Chemicals shares appeared to be the most exposed to such swings, despite Tata Motors and Tata Steel holding a higher stake in the holding company.

Tata Sons, the holder of the $125-billion salt-to-semiconductors business group, approved a fresh five-year extension for Chairman N Chandrasekaran’s tenure and set the ball rolling for the much-awaited IPO of the group holding company. However, cracks soon began to appear at Bombay House, with Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata opposing the decision and publicly calling it ‘illegal’.

Tata Trusts controls 66% of Tata Sons through the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Tata Sons’ largest minority shareholder with more than 18% stake, meanwhile backed the potential listing. This comes days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rejected the company’s application for voluntary surrender of its Certificate of Registration (CoR) to be classified as an unregistered Core Investment Company (CIC), paving the way for a public listing.


Also read | Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Tata Sons' second-largest shareholder, backs IPO

Why Tata Chemicals may be the biggest beneficiary in Tata Sons IPO

Tata Motors PV and Tata Steel each hold a little over 3% stake in Tata Sons, valued at around Rs 36,348 crore, while Tata Chemicals holds a 2.5% stake worth Rs 30,052 crore. Tata Power and The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) own 1-2% stake.

While Tata Chemicals doesn’t take the top spot among listed Tata companies with the highest stake in Tata Sons, its shares saw the sharpest movements this week amid the Tata Sons IPO buzz. Tata Chemicals shares skyrocketed 20% on Tuesday, and another 6.5% on Thursday, before tumbling over 8% on Friday after Tata Trusts' objection to Chandra’s reappointment. Tata Motors PV and Tata Steel shares meanwhile traded up to 4% up or down during the week.

While Tata Chemicals’ Rs 30,000 crore stake in Tata Sons may be lower than its two listed peers, it is significantly higher than its entire market value. Tata Chemicals currently has a market capitalisation of more than Rs 18,000 crore. “This will be a big value unlocking for Tata Chemicals shareholders,” Sunny Agrawal, Deputy Vice President on Fundamental Research at SBI Securities, told ET Now.

He noted that for Tata Motors PV, the stake is worth around 25-30% of its market cap. Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles currently has a market cap of more than Rs 1.12 lakh crore, while that for Tata Steel stands at over Rs 2.34 lakh crore. Both have a market cap much higher than the stake worth around Rs 36,350 crore they each own in the holding company.

Also read | All-out war at Bombay House: Trusts calls Chandra's return 'illegal,' Noel fights to keep Tata Sons unlisted

Tata Chemicals share price

Tata Chemicals shares have gained more than 16% in one week and 9% in a month. However, the stock has seen a sharp selloff earlier, falling more than 5% in 2026 so far and 28% in one year.

In the longer term, Tata Chemicals shares delivered negative returns of 33% over three years and 16% over five years. After the muted returns, the shareholders of the company are looking up to the prospective, much-awaited IPO of Tata Sons to unlock value.

Disclaimer: This article has been written by Debaroti Adhikary, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Debaroti Adhikary and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimers here.