Tata Finance, continuing its drive to shrink its assets, has sold a building in Mumbai's Fort for over Rs 46 crore (Rs 460 million) to the Allana group, a Tata Finance source said. The deal was struck on March 30.
The Mumbai-based Allana group, which has over 14 companies, including IVP Ltd, are the largest exporters of agricultural and processed food products.
Tata Finance had bought the Jhelelal building for Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million), which has now been renamed Allana Mansions.
Tata Finance had earlier been in talks with the People's Republic of China, which wanted to set up a consulate. But, the source said, the Chinese government walked out of the deal.
In the past few months, Tata Finance has shrunk its assets by some Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) by hawking its credit card and other businesses. Last month, ICICI Bank had acquired its credit card division with a base of around 80,000 cards. The size of the portfolio was around Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million).
More divisions of the troubled company will be put on the block. Tata Home Finance is close to being sold to the Industrial Development Bank of India, which had earlier backed out of talks with the Tatas.
At one point of time, Tata Finance was negotiating with Standard Chartered Bank as it was not sure whether the deal with IDBI would go through.
Stanchart, however, was not keen on taking over the entire loan portfolio. Credit rating agency Icra has done the due diligence for the home loans business.
The source said Tata Finance will eventually become an auto financier, functioning as an adjunct to group company, Tata Engineering.