Ratan Tata, Chairman of the $14.25 billion Tata Group, in an interview to London-based Financial Times hinted that the days of his family being at the helm of one of India's biggest industrial groups may be numbered and that he would lay down office in three years.

"I don't think it's going to be managed necessarily as a family company," 67-year-old Tata said.  "I shall step away at 70."

Tata Motors to invest Rs 5,200 cr in 3 years

Currently, the family owns less than two per cent of the holding company.

In an interview published by FT on Wednesday, he said Tata Motors plans to go global in a big way even as the group aims to reduce the number of companies by a reasonable amount, focusing on seven existing core sectors.

"The success of Tata Motors' international expansion will be judged less by the number of red pins that executives can stick into a map than by its ability to make a mark in a few key markets and to produce a more sophisticated product," Tata said.

Tata was in the US for the listing of Tata Motors, the group's biggest subsidiary, on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this week.

Tata Motors converted its Luxembourg-traded global depositary shares into American Depositary Receipts.

"We're not going to go abroad just to send a few vehicles. Instead, the group is seeking to hold our head high and say we've made a presence in that country," he said.

Tata is especially interested in South Africa, which he sees as a stepping-stone to other markets in the region. The group already builds buses and light trucks there with Imperial Holdings of Johannesburg, and is bidding to become one of the main suppliers of minibus taxis.

Tata wants to sell its Indigo and Indica cars in South Africa also, initially exporting them from India, but later possibly setting up a contract manufacturing operation.

The company is also seeking to gain a foothold in South America's Mercosur trading bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

In August, Tata signed a deal with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings of Shanghai to study the feasibility of selling Tata cars in China.

Tata said one of his most ambitious domestic projects is to produce a vehicle with a selling price below Rs 100,000 ($2,200), which would plug a gap in the market between scooters and cars.

He described the vehicle, which is still at a conceptual stage, as "a new animal", which would be "not a dressed-up motor-cycle, and not a watered-down car".

With more than 5 million scooters and motorcycles in India and more than 60 per cent of car sales in the lowest price brackets, "I've got to believe that there's a huge market to be looked at."

Tata said the group is poised to merge or sell several of its disparate businesses as it focuses on the biggest and healthiest of the 80 companies it controls.

On plans for the parent group, Tata said he aimed to reduce the number of companies "by a reasonable amount", focusing on seven existing core sectors: steel and other industrial materials, engineering, chemicals, services, energy, consumer products, and information technology and communications.