Mumbai: Flagging off the road-shows for the Rs 5,000 crore Initial Public Offering of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Tata group chairman Ratan N Tata today (July 21, 2004) said the proceeds will be used to restructure Tata Sons Ltd's balance sheet and support the group's new business initiatives.

The new initiatives will include floating of new companies and increasing the group's stake in existing entities, Tata told in Mumbai.

The group holding entity has a debt of around Rs 3,500 crore and book value of its investment worth Rs 6,000 crore, he said, adding the group would like to restructure the balance sheet.

Asked about overseas listing of TCS, Tata said "yes, we will do it in course of time".

Referring to prospects of consolidating IT companies in Tata Group fold, Tata said there were no specific plans as of now but "will look at it at a later stage using equity of TCS as a currency".

On expansion of TCS board, which currently has three directors, he said "it will be expanded by inducting persons of eminence, both from within and outside."

TCS chief executive officer S Ramadorai said the company would leverage its global presence to bag large size contracts cross sell services to existing customers.

He said TCS had posted a net profit of Rs 519 crore in Q1 ended June 30, 2004 as compared to Rs 303 crore in previous Q1 while revenues stood at Rs 2,134 crore (Rs 1,526 crore).