Tata writes off investments made in 22 Sri Lankan companies

India’s Tata firm, a diversified conglomerate has written of its over 50 year old equity stake existed in 22 Sri Lankan firms, a media report said.

According to the report, the investments have been written off as most of the firms, which it has stakes in Sri Lanka have been closed down or could not be traded or realized.

The investments have been written of at “ a very nominal amount”, Tata Investment Corporation Limited has said. However the firm has not disclosed the exact cost of the write-offs.

The firm has also written off its equity stakes in four Pakistani companies, for similar reasons.

“… 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 realized and the cost of which had been written down to a very nominal amount,” TICL has disclosed in its latest annual report for 2011-12.

Following the latest write-off, TICL’s equity exposure to the two neighboring countries is now limited to just one company, which is the Guardian Capital Partners Plc of Sri Lanka, in which it holds 2,720 shares with a total book value of less than Indian Rs 500.