Realty firm Tata Housing has shown interest in buying the 25-acre plot in Borivali, a northwestern suburb of the megapolis, owned by sister-company Tata Steel, which has been selling its assets to bring down its huge debt pile.
"We are always looking at opportunities for buying land to set up new projects. We have participated in the bid for the purchase of the Borivali plot," a Tata Housing spokesperson said.
Tata Steel has put on block its Borivli manufacturing facility four years after it shut operations there. The company expects to earn Rs 1,000 crore from the sale.
According to media reports, Kalpataru, Oberoi Realty, Piramal Realty and Tata Consultancy Services are also in the race to lap up the property.
Tata Steel, however, did not respond to an e-mail query sent to it.
At the end of the September quarter, Tata Steel had a consolidated net debt of Rs 64,334 crore.
In the three months to December 2013, the company reported an unexpected rise in net income at Rs 503.24 crore, buoyed by better operational performances in both India and Europe against a net loss of Rs 763.06 crore a year ago.
The company shares closed 1.8 per cent down at Rs 350 on the BSE today whose main gague was down 93 points.
Meanwhile, Tata Housing has also bid for the seven-acre property in Thane owned by Harsh Goenka of the RPG Group. Yesterday, global credit rating agency Standard & Poor's had said the credit profile of Tata Steel's will improve if it brought down its debt.
In a report S&P's credit analyst Mehul Sukkawala said Tata Steel had sold a part of its holding in group company Titan in 2013 and also put up a land holding in the northwestern suburb of Borivali for sale, and noted that it had also deferred the second phase of its greenfield project in Orissa to focus on generating cash flow for the first phase.
