"These aisles were then filled with shareholders expecting a fight," he said, alluding to the AGMs of the early nineties.
MUMBAI: Ratan Tata was remembering some fractious old days.
"These aisles were then filled with shareholders expecting a fight," he said, alluding to the annual general meetings of the early nineties when tensions between former Tata Steel honcho Russi Mody and the rest of the board had peaked.
"People were then questioning whether steel was a sunset industry, whether it was worth investing."
A topdraw international consulting firm even asked Tatas to exit the business.
But those days remain clearly buried, if Wednesday's gestures at the company's annual general meeting are anything to go by.
Cut-outs of the now-ailing Mody and other group doyens including the redoubtable JRD marked fanfaronade as the company announced quarterly sales and profits had risen an eye-popping 442% and 525%, respectively, thanks mainly to the $13 billion (Rs 52,000 crore) acquisition of UK's Corus Group plc on January 31 this year.
"I hope in the coming years we can prove our critics wrong," Tata said.
Yesterday, he was interrupted often by shareholders wanting to hand over bouquets, a miniature painting and even a metal handicraft.
And when Ashalata Maheshwari, a Tata Steel shareholder who's turn came first to speak at the centenary AGM asked all present to give Tata a standing ovation for what he had done, the applause resonated like never before in the Birla Matushri Sabagriha in New Marine Lines.
The occasion was also the first time the Corus top echelon was present in full strength - James Leng, Corus Group chairman and vice-chairman of Tata Steel; Philippe Varin, CEO of Corus and director of Tata Steel who is billed to take over from current managing director B Muthuraman once he retires; and Jacobus Schraven, executive director, Corus Group and director of Tata Steel.
Leng spoke impromptu on shareholder demand. "We were bought because we couldn't buy Tata Steel," he said, remembering the long road taken after he had visited Tata Steel fishing for cooperation strategies and ending up witnessing the bidding war between Tata Steel and Brazilian giant Cia Siderurgica Nacional with a "May the best man win" attitude. Tata Steel is hinging its moves on the good times and pricing power continuing in the steel industry. By 2010, global demand for steel will rise from one 1.1 billion tonnes to 1.3 billion tonnes, Tata predicted.
"The industry will see more consolidation." By 2007, China will add 46 million tonnes of steel making capacity making it an important cornerstone of the steel industry, he said.
The steelmaker is betting on steel consumption to go up substantially in India. Today the average consumption of steel per person is just 38 kgs and he expects it to double by 2015.
He reasoned by stating that China's per capita consumption is about 270 kgs and in developed countries it is still higher at 340 kgs. Charles C Spencer and Sandy Niu, Morgan Stanley analysts, predicted on Tuesday that steel prices are on the rebound and will rise through to the year end.
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