(From left) Tata group chairman Ratan Tata with merchant banker Nimesh Kampani and Tata Sons vice-chairman . Soonawala in Mumbai on Wednesday. (PTI)

Mumbai, July 21: The patriarchs trooped in, Tata shoguns milled around and the money managers crunched numbers for what is billed as the hottest event on the stock market calendar this year — TCS’ maiden issue.

Ratan Tata led the retinue of Tata honchos at the first official function to announce just how the mother of all initial public offers in India will be nursed.

“It is a very memorable moment for us today,” said Tata, flanked on the dais by Tata Sons vice-chairman Noshir Soonawala, TCS chief S. Ramadorai and Ishaat Hussain, another group lynchpin.

Tata recounted how a company founded in 1968 — when few in the country had heard of computers, much less of software — evolved into a powerhouse that could rake in Rs 5,000 crore when it goes public on July 29.

Three leading investment banks, known for their ability to play Pied Piper to foreign funds, swapped ideas on how to give the IPO hard-sell campaign the widest possible reach and scoop up the dollar dollops. They were Nimesh Kampani of J. M. Morgan Stanley, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Merrill Lynch and Dominic Price of J. P. Morgan Chase Bank.

F. C. Kohli, the man who helped J. R. D. Tata set up TCS 36 years ago, had to be cajoled into moving from Tata Power with the promise that he could go back to his old firm if the venture failed. Today, the glint of pride in his eyes could not be missed.

Price said two teams with senior Tata officials and merchant bankers will take the TCS story overseas. The first, led by Ratan Tata, will touch down in Singapore and Hong Kong, before it wings its way to key financial hotspots in western Europe and the US. Husain, who will lead the other team, said the pre-IPO campaign would also go to 20 cities in India, in an effort to get small investors to lap up the TCS stock.

The offer has been timed in a way that foreign funds have enough time to take a call on it before they go on a two-week break in the second to third week of August. Money raised through the offer will be used to strengthen Tata Sons’ balancesheet — including Rs 3,500 crore in debts and Rs 6,000 crore worth of investments.

Tata did not rule out an overseas listing of TCS, but insisted that it would be done “in course of time”. On the expansion of the company’s board, which has three directors now, he said persons of eminence, both from within and outside, would be brought in.

Ramadorai said TCS’ global presence would be leveraged to bag large contracts and cross-sell services to customers. The firm posted a net profit of Rs 519 crore in the first quarter compared with Rs 303 crore in the same quarter of last year.