Mumbai, Jan. 31: In late 2005, no one quite took any notice of what Ratan Tata told Ranjit Pandit in an interview with McKinsey Quarterly. Pandit had popped a seemingly innocuous open-ended question: “When will Tata be ready to go into developed markets?”

After asserting that the Tatas were already present, to some extent, in developed economies, in areas like information technology, hotels and automobiles, Tata said: “…We are now looking at opportunities to invest in steel companies in developed countries, but we are making sure that we have secure access to raw materials, because I really believe that owners of iron ore are going to rule the industry. They will be the Opec of the steel industry.”

That was the first-known instance when Ratan Tata articulated his desire to turn his sights on the western steel markets — just weeks before L. N. Mittal mounted his hostile $33.1-billion bid for Arcelor, which was then the second-largest steel producer in the world. In retrospect, there is delicious irony in the statement: the Tatas did not wait to tie up its iron ore supplies even as other players scrambled to forge deals. Instead, it went for Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker, and pipped Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) Brazil, which had access to one of the richest iron ore mines at Casa da Pedra.

The Corus buyout — valued at $11.3 billion — is the largest acquisition by any Indian company and raises the bar for Indian businessmen who have now started to strain at the bit that has checked their ambition to vault on to the big global stage.

By acquiring Corus Group Plc which is much higher than its own size, Tata Steel Ltd and Ratan Tata have in many words become the flagbearer of India Inc. With many Indian companies looking overseas and funds readily available to fulfil their buyout dreams, the Corus deal will inject confidence in corporate India with more businessmen hoping to close multi-billion deals.

Reserve Bank governor YV Reddy – whose monetary policy review was somewhat overshadowed by the audacious Tata acquisition – said it was gratifying to see Indian corporates that did not have advantage of scale, now acquiring it by venturing overseas. “The acquisition funding also shows confidence of the financial markets and the capacity of the Indian corporates to run the target company,” he added.

“It is good thing for the country. It will make many corporates bolder,” said Harendar Kumar, head, research, ICICI Direct. Kumar pointed out that while the Tatas have shown through the Corus deal that “they can chew more than they could bite, the group have also shown over the years how they could make the best of an acquisition as demonstrated by the buyout of Tetley”.