N Chandrasekaran's term as Tata Sons chairman renewed for another 5 years

Tata Trusts' presence likely to be strengthened in the restructured board of Tata Sons

The salt-to-software Tata Group will see continuation of leadership as N Chandrasekaran remains executive chairman for another five years. The board of directors at the holding company, Tata Sons, met on Friday to reappoint Chandrasekaran as chairman.

Group patriarch and Tata Trusts chairman Ratan Tata, who was present at the board meeting as a special invitee, recommended renewal of Chandrasekaran’s term as executive chairman of Tata Sons, according to a company statement. Tata expressed satisfaction on the progress and performance of the group under Chandrasekaran, the statement said. Tata is chairman emeritus of Tata Sons.       

The board members-- Venu Srinivasan, Ajay Piramal , Ralf Speth, Bhaskar Bhat, Sourabh Agrawal and Harish Manwani--unanimously approved Chandrasekaran’s reappointment.

Tata Trusts, which is the biggest shareholder at Tata Sons with 66 per cent stake, may send two of its trustees as directors at Tata Sons board. Vice-chairman of Tata Trusts Vijay Singh is likely to be re-inducted into the Tata Sons board as Tata Trusts nominee. Singh, a former civil servant, was on the Tata Sons board as Tata Trusts nominee till August 2018, when he reached the official retirement age. Sources said the group’s governance guidelines relating to age could be changed in view of the new set-up. 

Apart from Chandrasekaran’s reappointment, Tata Sons did not comment on any other matter.   

As per the company’s Articles of Association, Tata Trusts can nominate a third of the directors on the board of the holding company of the conglomerate as long as it owns at least 40 per cent. At present, Srinivasan is representing Tata Trusts on the Tata Sons board.  

“It has been a privilege to lead the Tata Group for the last five years and I am delighted at the opportunity to lead the Tata Group for another five years, in its next phase," Chandrasekaran, 58, said.

The market valuation of Tata group companies gained an additional Rs 14.9 trillion in the last five years, data analysed by Business Standard shows. The total market capitalisation of top 29 listed entities of Tata group companies rose to Rs 23.46 trillion as on Friday from Rs 8.5 trillion in February 2017, when Chandrasekaran had taken over as chairman.

In a boardroom coup of sorts, Cyrus Mistry was ousted as Tata Sons chairman in October 2016. Chandrasekaran replaced him in February 2017 after a prolonged search for the top post.     

The move to re-appoint Chandrasekaran did not surprise India Inc leaders or Tata insiders.  "The major challenge for Chandrasekaran stems from the fact that he is heading the principal investment holding company, wherein firms like Tata Steel, Tata Motors, TCS, and Tata Powers are members, and each has a set of unique challenges and opportunities," said Himanshu Rai, Director of Indian Institute of Management, Indore.

"Chandra needs to robustly amplify the conglomerate's corporate and parental advantage to enable each firm to grow by leveraging its strengths and addressing its weaknesses. He also needs to focus on radical innovation and environment, social and governance (ESG) issues across the spectrum of Tata firms," Rai said.

The biggest challenge before Chandra will be to turn around Air India, a Tata official said. Tatas acquired Air India from the government in a Rs 18,000-crore deal recently.  

Chandrasekaran's tenure in the last five years witnessed several mergers and acquisitions across steel, aviation and digital sectors. The group has exited the cellular telephony business.

One of the first tasks of Chandra, as he is popularly known, was to get rid of Tata Teleservices which lost around Rs 60,000 crore in paying back bank loans apart from paying the AGR (adjusted gross revenue) dues till date. The Tata group sold the mobile phone business to Bharti Airtel while retaining debt and other liabilities of the company.

In May 2018, in one of the biggest acquisitions till date, Tata Steel acquired Bhushan Steel for Rs 35,200 crore after the company defaulted to bank loans and was sent for the insolvency court by its lenders. Tata Steel has managed to turn around the company which has been renamed Tata Steel BSL. Tata Steel tried to sell its European business to ThyssenKrupp in the last two years but failed to close the deal after objections from several quarters including unions.

Last year, the group started a spree of  acquisitions, including BigBasket, in the digital space ahead of the proposed launch of a superapp. This year could see more action in this space.