Tata Group, on Monday, said it was in talks with partners in Africa to set up new assembly lines for commercial and passenger vehicles and was also looking at further enhancing its presence in the hospitality and mining sectors.
Talking to journalists during the CII-Exim Bank conclave on ‘India-Africa Project Partnership’ here, Tata Africa Holdings Managing Director Raman Dhawan said new investments of around $1.7 billion had been lined up in various projects by the group in Africa. “The current revenue in Africa is around $2.3 billion, and we expect a growth of 30 per cent per annum on this. We are present in 20 countries in Africa. Limitless investments are lined up for Africa in future as we are very upbeat about growth prospects there,” Mr. Dhawan said.
R. T. Wasan, Head, International Business, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors, said the company was seeking to identify partners in Tunisia and Kenya for putting in place assembly lines for commercial and passenger vehicles.
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He said Tata Motors had a commercial vehicles assembly plant in South Africa, and was also planning to set up a bus body building plant through its global partner, Marcopolo.
New properties
Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, the hospitality arm of the group, was considering proposals from three-four countries to set up new properties. Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces has a property at Lusaka in Zambia and Cape Town in South Africa.
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Tata Sons Brand Custodian and Chief Ethics Officer Mukund Govind Rajan said power generation and transmission was one of the key focus areas for the African nations and the idea was to deepen roots in Africa and expand the Tata Group’s presence in different sectors. However, he ruled out participation of the Tata Group in the oil and gas business in the energy-rich nations of the region.