Mumbai : A deal involving a global tea trading portal appears to be brewingat Tata Tea. While sources indicate that the company has already made apitch for one such portal, where it wants to make an investment, the name ofthe company could not be confirmed. Tata Internet Services Limited (TISL)which officially launched its commercial services on Thursday, is alsobelieved to be involved with this deal.Commenting on the development, Mr Kishor Chaukar, managing director, TataIndustries, who was present at the launch of Tata Internet, said to TheFinancial Express, "Yes, I have been discussing the possibility of aninvestment of this nature with the management at Tata Tea but we haven'tfinalised anything. On the issue of Tata Internet's involvement, it makessense for Tata Tea to get together with them. Tata Internet has thecapability to provide several services while Tata Tea has the domainknowledge necessary for the venture".
Mr N Srinath, CEO, TISL also indicated that the company was in talks withseveral group companies as well as major corporates outside of the Group, tooffer various B2B services. While he did not name the companies outside theGroup, he indicated that the company was talking to Tata Engineering tooffer some Internet services. He added that the sectors TISL was targetingas a potential market for B2B services were hospitality, retail,manufacturing and finance.
The B2B Internet services would include Virtual Private Networks, Privateand Label Exchanges, among others.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
