Tata Sons shareholders to meet on Feb 6 to oust Mistry from board

Mistry resigned as director from all Tata Group companies and filed a case

Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of India’s largest conglomerate, has called for an extraordinary general meeting on February 6 to oust former chairman Cyrus Mistry (pictured) from the board of the closely held firm, according to a company spokesman.
 
Mistry, whose family owns 18.5 per cent of Tata Sons, resigned as director from all Tata Group companies and filed a case with the National Company Law Tribunal, alleging trustees led by Interim Chairman Ratan Tata were causing a complete breakdown of corporate governance at Tata Sons. Tata Trusts — a philanthropic group of bodies endowed by the Tata family — own 66 per cent of the firm.

 
The move to purge Mistry from the holding company is the latest twist in the battle that began with his ouster in October, and has resulted in 26 of the group’s Indian units losing $9.5 billion in market value. Ratan Tata, who mentored Mistry for the chairman job in 2012, is re-asserting control at the group.
 

The Tata Sons board is seeking to remove Mistry to ensure confidentiality of board decisions, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified. The ousted executive’s office declined to comment on Friday.
 
Mistry, in a December interview, said he will remain a director on the holding company’s board “as long as they keep me.” The feud and the law suit wasn’t about his own position but about reforming the organisation and ensuring the process for selecting the next chairman was transparent, he’d said.