These investments have been written off as most of these companies from the two neighbouring countries have either closed operations or could not be traced or realised.
The investments have been written off at "a very nominal amount", Tata Investment Corporation Ltd (TICL) said. The company, however, did not disclose the exact cost of the write-offs.
"... The company wrote off the historical holdings in 26 companies in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which the company had been carrying for over fifty years but which had either closed operations or could not be traced or realised and the cost of which had been written down to a very nominal amount," TICL disclosed in its latest annual report for 2011-12.
TICL said that the total number of companies in its equity portfolio fell to 171 at the end of last fiscal, from 205 as on March 31, 2010. The decline in the number of invested companies was largely due to the company writing off its four investments in Pakistan and 22 in Sri Lanka.
Following the latest write-off, TICL's equity exposure to the two neighbouring countries is now limited to just one company, Guardian Capital Partners Plc of Sri Lanka, in which it holds 2,720 shares with a total book value of less than Rs 500.
As on March 31, 2011, TICL's investment portfolio included shares of a total of 27 companies from these two countries.
"All the equity investments in Sri Lanka and Pakistan except one scrip have been written off during the year. Equity Shares held in Sri Lanka/Pakistan Companies are at cost less provision for other than temporary diminution," the company said.
As part of its normal business, TICL invests in a diversified portfolio of quoted and unquoted securities of companies, including Tata group of entities, as also in mutual funds, bonds and venture capital funds. Its primary sources of income consist of dividend income and profit on sale of investments.