Bangalore: The size of the initial public offering of Tata Consultancy Services is expected to be in the region of Rs 5000-6,000 crore and hit the markets after the Union Budget, even as Tatas said it planned to invest Rs 20,000 crore in telecom business in the next three-four years and intends to enter the biotechnology segment.

Stating this in Bangalore, Director of Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group of Companies, J J Irani, told reporters that Tata Sons would invest the proceeds of the IPO that it would get, on telecom business and new areas they might be moving into like bio-technology.

Tata Sons, which at present holds a 90 per cent stake in TCS, India's largest IT company, will offload 14.4 million shares (a 3.17 per cent stake).

TCS IPO size is expected to be somewhere between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 6,000 crore, Irani said.

The combined profit after tax of the Tatas - which has 80 companies - was more than Rs 5,000 crore in 2003-04. "We don't want to tom-tom about it."

Sounding extremely bullish on Tatas' telecom business, Irani said Tatas planned to invest Rs 20,000 crore in the telecom business in the next three-four years.

"Investment of Tatas in telecom will now exceed its investment in Tata Steel, Tata Motor or any other Tata company," Irani said.

Tatas are looking to acquire one or two small telecom companies, he said. "Telecom is going to be the main investment avenue of the Tatas." Tatas want to be one of the big players in telecom in India and that would be achieved through consolidation.

Last year, the demand was so much that Tata Teleservices ran out of capacity, Irani said. "This year, we will invest 100s of crores of Rupees on capacity building." He said telecom is one business that will keep on growing - slope of growth may go up or come down - unlike steel or motor business which depends on demand-supply and goes through a cycle.

He said bio-technology is on "our radar screen and on which we are keeping tabs", adding, "If the opportunity comes, we will invest."

Irani indicated that Tatas would get out of any business where they are not in the top three position. "We have 80 companies. There is always dynamism of acquiring and getting out of."

"Our philosophy is that wherever we are we are first, second or third...may be reluctantly the third. We are not going to be amongst also-rans," he said.