The Tata Steel stock had touched a low of Rs 93.60 in October last year, and began rising by November, when it touched Rs 97.50. The group holdings as on March 31, 2000 stood at 24 per cent. Tata Steel chairman Ratan Tata, at the annual general meeting of the company, in June last year, had said that the group will increase its stake in Tata Steel by the creeping acquisition route in order to evade any takeover threat in addition to preserving shareholder value. In the present scenario, analysts said that there is little possibility of a hostile takeover. However, the company is hiking its stake through creeping acquisitions in anticipation of future laws which might leave the company vulnerable to takeovers from multinationals. The Tata Steel scrip on the BSE in March 2000, was ruling at Rs 122.80. This dipped in the subsequent months of April, May and June to Rs 117, Rs 111 and Rs 126. In October, the price bottomed out to Rs 93.60, before rising to Rs 122.50 in Dec ember 2000, and then to Rs 131.50 in Janthis year.

Tata Steel is branching into allied industries such as titanium mining and ferro chrome, this year.

Stating this, Tata Steel managing director JJ Irani told newspersons that the company has initiated separate projects to commence titanium mining in Tamil Nadu. "We have commenced surveys and have also approached the state governments for its approval," he said. India has 20 per cent of the world's titanium reserves, which leaves room for huge potential for exploration, he added.

After excavation, in the next phase, Tata Steel would be manufacturing rutile. The company may either manufacture titanium dioxide or titanium, he said, adding that since the company does not have the requisite technology for the purpose, it would explore joint ventures (JV) in this field.

Dr Irani said that the company has already initiated talks with a Japanese and American company for the JV. However, he did not disclose the names.

As a step to cut the costs in raw material for value addition, the company is setting up a ferro chrome plant in Australia.

Investment in the plant at Queensland was pegged at $50 million. This facility, once operational, will help to reduce costs considerably since power tariffs are one-fifth of those prevailing in India, Dr Irani said.Tata Steel is considering to retire high-cost debts to the tune of about Rs 500-700 crore by October this year. This would be carried out by offering the call option facility to the holders of Tata Steel trust bonds.

It has improved its cash flow substantially and is likely to post better profits in the current fiscal, despite the fact that the company had sold its cement unit to French company, Lafarge. The company's cash flow has also been hit by power charges of Rs 85 crore slapped by the Bihar State Electricity Board with retrospective effect.

The company would be focussing more on product development for export markets since there were good emerging opportunities in South-east, Middle-East and North American markets.

The company is also targeting at acquiring control of the Salem Stainless Steel plant through a foreign JV with Usinor of Germany. Dr Irani also said that the company has finalised the acquisition of the Indiranagar-based (near Jamshedpur) Indian Steel and Wire Products which has an installed capacity of 3.54 lakh tonnes per annum.