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It would be an end of an era at Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, with its shareholders’ meeting here on Monday at an extraordinary general meeting to oust former chairman Cyrus Mistry as a director from the board.
The Mistry family had first acquired shares in Tata Sons in 1965 and Mistry’s father, Pallonji Mistry, was first appointed as a Tata Sons director in 1980 and retired in 2004. Cyrus joined two years later as a director and became Tata Sons chairman in 2012 though the family did not have any nomination right on the board. After differences of opinion with group patriarch Ratan Tata, Mistry was ousted as a chairman on October 24 last year in a surprise move by the Tata Sons board.
Mistry moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) which did not grant any interim relief to Mistry. The next hearing is scheduled on February 13 in Mumbai.
Besides N Chandrasekaran who takes over as the next Tata Sons chairman on February 21, the Tata group is likely to see other faces in senior positions as well.
The fight between Tata Sons and Mistry family, meanwhile, would continue at the NCLT where Mistry’s petition is currently pending.
Legal sources said though Mistry’s petition to stay Tata Sons’ EGM was rejected last week by the NCLT tribunal, the Mistry family will continue the legal fight with the Tatas at the National Company Law Board in Mumbai where his petition on oppression and mismanagement of Tata Sons is pending. “We may have lost the battle, but the war continues,” said a source close to the Mistrys.
Mistry is also expected to focus on his family’s construction businesses which give the Mistry brothers a combined valuation of $14.5 billion.
“There is too much at stake for the Mistry family here and they are not planning to let go of their rights,” said a source close to the development. The shares held by Mistrys were certainly not up for sale, he clarified.
