Mistry family abstains from voting for Tata Sons chairman

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP Group), which is embroiled in a bitter legal feud with Tata Sons, has abstained from voting for the re-appointment of Chairman N Chandrasekaran and appointment of one director. The group also voted against the appointment of Vijay Singh as director.

However, Tatas voted in favour of all the three resolutions that came up for voting at the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Monday. The SP Group — controlled by Mistry brothers Shapoor and Cyrus — holds an 18.4% stake in Tata Sons, the holding company of all Tata Group entities.

According to sources, the SP Group abstained as a litigation between the groups is pending before the Supreme Court.

The group also voted against the appointment of Vijay Singh as director, and abstained from voting for the appointment of Leo Puri as director. However, the reasons for abstaining from voting for Chandrasekaran and Leo Puri and rejecting Vijay Singh could be not immediately ascertained.

With the majority stake being held by Tatas and its members voting in favour, all the resolutions are expected to be passed, sources close to the development told FE.

A Mistry group spokesperson declined to comment.

Earlier in its EGM notice, Tata Sons said the board approved the re-appointment of Chandrasekaran as Executive Chairman for a further period of five years from February 21, 2022, to February 20, 2027. This was, however, subject to shareholders’ approval.

Chandra, as he is known in the industry, was designated chairman in January 2017 and later took charge on February 21, 2017, following the ouster of former Chairman Cyrus P Mistry. His five-year tenure officially ended in February this year.

The board members had commended Chandra’s performance and “unanimously” approved his reappointment for the next five years, Tata Sons had said in a statement.

During his tenure with the salt-to-software business conglomerate, Chandrasekaran was instrumental in winning the bid for state-run carrier Air India, developing the super app TataNeu, revamping Tata Motors’ domestic operations, electrification of the world’s cheapest car Nano and divesting Tata Steel’s cash-guzzling European operations, among others.

For FY2021, the privately-held Tata Sons’ consolidated net profit rose 77.68% to Rs 19,397.08 crore, while on a standalone basis, it had more than doubled to Rs 6,511.63 crore.

During the period, the holding company posted operational revenues of Rs 9,460.24 crore, which comprises dividends from group firms. Including Chandrasekaran, the Tata Sons board has eight directors. The others on the board are Venu Srinivasan (chairman of Sundaram-Clayton and TVS Motor Company), Ajay Piramal (chairman of Piramal Group and the Shriram Group), Ralf Speth (CEO of Jaguar Land Rover), Bhaskar Bhat (former MD of Titan) and Harish Manwani (former global COO for Unilever and non-executive chairman of Hindustan Unilever).