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Tata Sons sacks Mistry

Ratan Tata is interim chairman
Last Updated 24 October 2016, 20:56 IST

Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, ousted Cyrus Mistry as its chairman and brought in Ratan Tata as interim chief on Monday.

The development was totally unexpected and stunned the corporate world. Tata will steer the salt-to-software Indian multinational conglomerate for four months, after which it gets a new chairman.

He had retired from the top post in 2012.

Tata Sons assigned no reasons for the removal of 48-year-old Mistry, who represents the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the largest shareholder in the $100 billion-plus company.

The abrupt end of Mistry’s helmsmanship came at a Tata Sons’  board meeting on
Monday.

Even the top brass at Bombay House, headquarters of the Tata Group, had no clue about what was brewing at the meeting. In two brief statements, Tata Sons said the decision to ‘replace’ Mistry was taken at the board meeting.

“The Tata Sons board met today (Monday) and replaced Cyrus Mistry as chairman with immediate effect. The board in its collective wisdom and on the recommendation of the principal shareholders decided that it may be appropriate to consider a change for the long term interest of Tata Sons and the Tata Group....The board has named Ratan N Tata as interim chairman of Tata Sons,” the statements said.

The board also constituted a selection committee to choose a new chairman within four months.

Besides Tata, it comprises Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra, Ronen Sen and Kumar Bhattacharyya.

The board announced no change of CEOs in its companies. Shapoorji Pallonji owns nearly 18% in Tata Sons, while 66% of the equity capital is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the Tata family, the bigger ones being the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust.

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(Published 24 October 2016, 20:56 IST)

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