TCS scrip hits new peak, m-cap at $70bn

MUMBAI: Owning a Harley Davidson or a Prada may add the necessary bling to your lifestyle, but owning Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) shares will add the necessary zing to your bank account. The TCS shares on Tuesday touched a new record in terms of market capitalisation to $70 billion. Consider this in comparison to luxury goods makers like Harley Davidson’s market cap of $15 billion or Prada’s $26 billion, the low-cost outsourcer TCS has become hot property.It is now closing in on German marquee brand BMW‘s market cap of $73 billion.
TCS market cap is four times bigger than that of fashion brand Gap’s $18 billion, is twice of Christian Dior’s $35 billion and has sprinted ahead of Nike’s $66 billion. Its stock price, which zoomed more than 6% to Rs 2,218 on Tuesday, has also rubbed off on the Tata Group’s market cap, which is now $110 billion. India’s leading conglomerate’s market cap is much more than the value of famed Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs’s $75 billion, American Express’s $83 billion, planemaker Boeing’s $90 billion and miner Rio Tinto’s $92 billion. TCS accounts for almost 64% of Tata Group’s market cap, powering the conglomerate to the $100-billion market cap club under chairman Cyrus Mistry. When Mistry took over at the helm of the group in December 2012, the group’s market cap was $90 billion. The Tata Group, which earns more than half of its revenues outside India, is now inching towards Facebook’s market cap of $120 billion. The group is spread across seven sectors and has 27 listed companies under its fold.

In recent times, the 3.9 million investors of the Tata Group have gained significantly mainly because of TCS’s listing in 2004. The software services pioneer has emerged as a favourite among IT investors. The best part of it is that some of the foreign companies mentioned above are clients of TCS contributing to its revenue, profit and market cap. No wonder, today the TCS scrip is a Rolls Royce on the bourses. With due apologies to the late David Ogilvy, the loudest noise you would hear at $70-billion m-cap is the hum of efficiency.