Standing tall

Mumbai, Jan. 31: In the end, the battle for Corus was won by those with nerves of steel.

As the rest of the world bit its nails while Tata Steel out-ran CSN in a photo-finish on Tuesday, Ratan Tata quietly ate his dinner at the usual time with his family in his Mumbai apartment.

“He returned around 9 pm; that’s a little later than usual. We all knew what a critical day it was for him. So though we usually wish each other, I did not disturb him yesterday. He has done a lot for this society and is quite popular with everyone. Everybody here is very proud of him today,” said a neighbour at the posh Bakhtawar Apartments in Colaba. Tata group headquarters on Homi Mody Street confirmed that Ratan Tata left for home at the end of a three-hour board meeting – long before the final auction on Corus started.

“He left before 9pm and told us before calling it a day that the final decision on Corus should not be an emotional one, but a hard-core financial decision,” said a top Tata Steel official involved in the negotiations.

Even B. Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel, left Bombay House around 10.30 pm, before the auction began.

“The war-room was in charge of young turks like Kaushik Chatterjee, VP (finance) of the company, who were adequately guided by Tata group old-timers like N.A. Soonawala and Ishaat Hussain, vice chairman and director of Tata Sons,” said the Tata Steel executive.

Ratan Tata watched the night-long London-Mumbai auction from his home on video-conferencing.

“All through the negotiations, we had kept a figure in mind which had been decided upon by our chairman. We were told to fight hard, but not go beyond the said figure. But in any case, the final decision would have been Ratan Tata’s if the auction went beyond that figure. We knew he was watching us. But in the end, we did not reach anywhere near that sum as the deal was struck at a lower amount,” said the Tata Steel source.

On Wednesday, the mood at Bombay House was one of a field regiment that has returned after winning a war. Although no formal party announcements had been made, top bosses of all Tata group companies present in Mumbai had been invited to attend the Tata Steel press conference held in the city to announce the Corus takeover.