Tata Motors, India's largest truck maker, is looking to monetise its non-bank lending subsidiary as it plans to restructure its business, BloombergQuint reported.

“We will continue to own the majority stake in the company, but are open to bringing in partners in this business," P B Balaji, Chief Financial Officer of Tata Motors said, as reported by BloombergQuint.

The non-bank lending subsidiary, which focuses on both finance and refinance of vehicles, posted losses in two out of four quarters with non-performing assets reaching 4% in the year ended March 2018. Bad loans for the unit rose to 26% in 2014.

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“We infused Rs 300 crore last year and we have to be prepared for infusing Rs 400 crore every year," Balaji said to BloombergQuint, adding that the assets under management (AUM) of the finance arm rose at 24%.

Since the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), truck sales for Tata Motors in India, has increased. The company also improved on its commercial vehicle market share by 45.1% in the financial year 2018, aided by heavy discounting to pull share from rivals like Ashok Leyland Ltd, the report said.

$6 billion for Jaguar Land Rover

Tata Motors is planning to invest about $6 billion in the next two years, with about $5.6 billion on its luxury arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to boost growth. “Our debt to equity ratio is comfortable. JLR has enough undrawn facilities and liquidity is comfortable for the next 10 years," Balaji said.

The company made positive cash flows in the fourth quarter, Balaji said, who took his position as the chief financial officer six months ago, adding that JLR needs to keep the cost structures under control for the brand to grow.

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The new product development for the brand will be judicious on capital, demand and will focus on breaking even, further explaining that the company will have a 100 basis point impact on the earnings before interest tax of JLR in the medium term even as the company guided for 7-9% in the long term, the report said.

JLR changed its dividend policy from a fixed amount of 150 million pounds to 20% of the profit after tax (PAT) in fiscal 2018 and 25% in the subsequent year. This is in line with the 25-40% dividend paying policy of global auto majors, the report said.

Tata Motors said the measure of its turnaround will be ability to pay dividend, profitability and growth in market. Tata Motors last paid dividend in July 2016, BloombergQuint said.

First Published:May 25, 2018 12:47 PM IST