Tata Steel closed fiscal 2022 with record profit in its history, displacing Tata Group’s crown jewel TCS from the top slot as the most profitable entity of the $103 billion steel-to-software conglomerate. The company, one of the oldest units in the Tata Group, posted a profit of £4.17 billion in FY22, benefiting from a rally in alloy prices, while TCS logged in a profit of £3.84 billion during the same period.The blowout numbers made Tata Steel declare the highest ever dividend of Rs 51 per equity share to its shareholders. The biggest beneficiary of this dividend bonanza will be largest shareholder Tata Sons, which holds 32% in the steel maker.
The company also announced that each share with a face value of Rs 10 will be split into 10 shares with a nominal value of Re 1. “This will make the stock affordable to retail investors. It won’t make any impact for institutional investors but interest from retail investors in the counter increases,” said former JPMorgan India director and partner of RippleWave Equity Advisors, Mehul Savla.
Tata Steel is now among the star performers within the Tata conglomerate. It had posted losses for several fiscals at one point in its history, drained resources over its expensive foreign purchase of Corus, and was hit by the Covid pandemic, like several others. In Financial Year 2022, the company, led by T V Narendran, generated the highest-ever cash flow of £2.71 billion and operating profit of £6.38 billion.
