Tata Finance gives guarantee to BoM

mumbai: tata finance has agreed to provide a comfort letter for rs 55 crore to bank of maharashtra for the loan availed from it by the beleaguered niskalp investments. niskalp investments, a former subsidiary of tata finance, is now 51 per cent owned by tata sons, the holding company of the rs 33,000 crore tata group. the remaining stake is held by ewart investments, one of the investment companies of tata sons.the decision to provide the letter of comfort was taken at the board meeting of niskalp investments held on friday, september, 21, 2001. niskalp investments had availed the loan from bank of maharashtra to set up windmills across the country in 2000 when dilip pendse was the managing director of tata finance ltd. when contacted, a bombay house spokesperson confirmed the decision to provide a comfort letter to bank of maharashtra. meanwhile, the board of niskalp investments invited two of its sacked employees milind desai and beroze guzder to attend the meeting to discuss decisions taken during their period of service. the bombay house spokesperson termed the presence of the sacked employees as part of abiding by statutory requirements under the companies act. both are on the board of niskalp investments and hence were invited to attend, he said. the board also inducted two new faces, rajeev dhar and another representative from tata industries. a senior official said as part of clean-up operations, both milind desai and beroze guzder will be removed from the board of niskalp investments shortly. tata finance has filed an fir with the economic offences wing (eow) to investigate the misappropriation of funds including market operations undertaken by former managing director dilip pendse. the securities and exchange board of india has also initiated a probe to unearth the nexus between dilip pendse, ketan parekh and renaissance securities founder rakesh mehta to ramp-up some k-10 stocks.