Tata Sons asks cos to end ties with Mistry family-owned SP grp

Tata group under its new chief N Chandrasekaran has moved to cut all business dealings with Shapoorji Pallonji group, promoted by the family of ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry.
The board of Tata Sons, the promoter of major operating firms of the Tata group, had earlier this month asked firms of the conglomerate to terminate all business relationship with the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group, according to Tata group insiders.
The SP group has, however, said that during Mistry's tenure as Tata Sons chairman, engineering and construction contracts from all Tata companies had fallen to zero and if there were any residual orders pending, it would be "extremely insignificant in value".

The development is being seen as a continuation of the fallout of the bitter fight between Mistry and Tata Sons after the former's ouster last year.
Queries sent to Tata Sons remained unanswered.
The SP Group is the single largest shareholder in Tata Sons with 18.4 per cent stake.

In a statement, SP Group said when Mistry was chairman of Tata Sons, he had issued a directive in November 2013 to all Tata group companies to ensure that no new engineering and construction contracts were awarded to the SP group, during his tenure.
Orders from the Tata Group fell from Rs 1,125 crore in 2012-13 to zero in 2015-16, when Mistry was the chairman of Tata Sons, it added.

"Any residual orders pending is extremely insignificant in value for the SP Group," the statement said.
The Tata group and Mistry are currently fighting it out in the court after last year's bitter board room battle in which the latter was removed from the top post of the over USD 100-billion salt-to-software conglomerate.