JULY 20229For now, Renesas' single largest shareholder is an arm of the Japanese government, which owns about 20% of the sharesTejas Networks, a Bengaluru-based maker of telecom equipment, for ?1,850 crore. On the completion of the open offer, Tata Sons now owns a 52.45% stake in it. Tejas is working on software systems that will allow mobile carriers to shift from the current 4G, or fourth-generation networks, to 5G, or fifth-generation wireless networks. The new cellular standard has the potential to pump out faster data, on which new types of mobile applications, including the most basic, downloading movies on smartphones within a few minutes, will become possible.Executives at Tejas expect the company to have commercial 5G solutions by December. How Tejas, and in turn, the Tata Group, will monetize this, is not clear as yet, but it would like group companies to work more closely with the Bengaluru firm. N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating officer of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, the country's largest technology services firm, was recently anointed as chairman of Tejas. For now, Renesas' single largest shareholder is an arm of the Japanese government, which owns about 20% of the shares. Denso, an auto component maker and Toyota own 7.9% and 3.9%, respectively. It is not known if Tata Sons partnership with the Japanese chip manufacturer will eventually see the Indian conglomerate becoming a minority owner in the company.Globally, not many conglomerates have any play in newer technologies. If executed well, Tata's bets hold the potential to not just reinvigorate the country's largest conglomerate but also, in turn, burnish chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran's position.
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