India’s Tata mulls sale of Voltas home appliances business

BENGALURU (Reuters): India’s Tata Group is considering selling the home appliances business of Voltas (VOLT.NS), in which it has a nearly 30% stake, as the conglomerate expects difficulties in scaling it up in a competitive market, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

The considerations are at an early stage and Tata has not yet decided if the sale will include Voltas’ consumer durables local joint venture, Voltbek Home Appliances, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report did not give financial details of the deal.

Voltas, which makes air conditioners and water coolers among other products, and the salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Voltas’s shares fell nearly 2% to a session-low of 812.5 rupees on the report. The company had a market value of 274.20 billion rupees ($3.29 billion) as of Monday.