Mcap club: Tata group remains No 1; Murugappa, JSW in top 10

Tata Group remained India’s largest business conglomerate in market capitalisation in calendar year 2023 while the Mukesh Ambani camp raced ahead of the Adani businesses to become the second-largest.

The Tata companies ended 2023 with a combined group market capitalisation of Rs 28.68 trillion, up 35 per cent from the Rs 21.2 trillion at the end of December 2022.

Ambani’s group mcap is Rs 19.42 trillion at the end of CY23, up 10.7 per cent from the Rs 17.6 trillion a year ago.

Adani Group slipped to third rank with Rs 14.2 trillion at the end of December 2023, down 27.8 per cent from the Rs 19.7 trillion a year ago.

In calendar year 2022, Adani Group had overtaken the Mukesh Ambani camp to become the country’s second-largest in terms of market capitalisation.

The numbers suggest the business groups with a major presence in automotive, engineering, capital goods, power, infrastructure and retail outperformed in CY23 while those in commodities, energy, and finance were laggards on a relative basis.

Chennai-headquartered Murugappa Group, which has a major presence in retail finance, engineering and power equipment, sugar, agro chemicals and abrasives, was the biggest gainer among conglomerates in CY23 and broke into the top 10 league for the first time.

The group is now the ninth-biggest with a market capitalisation of Rs 3.36 trillion, up 52.6 per cent from the Rs 2.2 trillion a year ago. In comparison, the group was ranked 15th in CY22.

The group gained from a strong rally in Cholamandalam Investment & Finance (up 78.1 per cent year-on-year, or Y-o-Y), CG Power & Industry (up 68 per cent Y-o-Y), and Tube Investments (up 27.8 per cent Y-o-Y).

JSW Group broke into the club of the top 10 in CY23, thanks to the initial public offering (IPO) and the listing of JSW Infrastructure, which added nearly Rs 44,000 crore to the group’s market capitalisation. With this, the group mcap rose to Rs 3.33 trillion at the end of CY23, up 39.5 per cent from the Rs 2.39 trillion a year ago.

JSW Group was ranked 14th among conglomerates in CY22.

Rahul Bajaj Group was India’s fourth-biggest for the second year in a row with a market capitalisation of Rs 10.12 trillion, up 23.3 per cent from the Rs 8.21 trillion a year ago.

It was followed by Aditya Birla Group, which climbed to fifth place in CY23 with a group market capitalisation of Rs 6.6 trillion, up 32.6 per cent from Rs 4.98 trillion a year ago.

Bharti Group, which owns Bharti Airtel, dropped one rank to sixth place in 2023, with a market capitalisation of Rs 6.59 trillion, 27.5 per cent up from the Rs 5.17 trillion a year ago.

Shiv Nadar Group, which owns HCL Technologies, jumped two places to seventh rank with a market capitalisation of Rs 3.98 trillion, up 41.1 per cent from Rs 2.82 trillion a year ago.

Mahindra Group, on the other hand, slipped to eighth position from seventh with a group mcap of Rs 3.95 trillion, up 31.7 per cent from the Rs 3 trillion a year ago.

Most of the incremental gains to the Tatas in CY23 came from a rally in Tata Motors, Trent, Tata Power, Tata Consumer and Titan Company, besides the IPO and listing of Tata Technologies, which added around Rs 47,700 crore to the group mcap.

In comparison, Tata Consultancy Services, the group’s biggest company in market capitalisation, was a laggard with a 16.4 per cent rise.

The retail major Trent was the top performer with a 126.3 per cent rise in market capitalisation to Rs 1.09 trillion at the end December 2023 from Rs 48,000 crore a year ago.

It was followed by Tata Motors, whose market capitalisation (including differential voting rights) more than doubled to Rs 3.12 trillion in CY23 from around Rs 1.5 trillion at the end of CY22.