Cyrus Mistry, the ousted chairman of Tata Sons, said his fight now was to protect the Tata Group from ‘capricious decision-making’ by Interim Chairman Ratan Tata.
“Far from Mr.Mistry taking control over all Tata Group activity, it is a matter of record that the Governance Guidelines developed under him in consultation with the Board of Directors of Tata Sons and CEOs and independent directors of various Tata Group operating companies, subjected Mr. Mistry himself to an unprecedented scrutiny of nearly 50 individuals who appraised his corporate performance,” according to a statement issued by Mr. Mistry’s office.
This was in reponse to a Tata Sons statement issued on Monday dismissing charges contained in Mr. Mistry’s representation to various Tata Group companies. Mr. Mistry’s statement also labelled the Tata Sons statement as vague in detail.
“The statement itself records that Mr. Mistry’s family holds over 18 per cent interest in Tata Sons. If he were to indeed seek to make Tata Group companies break away from Tata Sons, he would have been hurting his own family’s financial interests,” he said.
“It is, in fact, these individuals prone to impulsive control who have inflicted severe damage and enormous financial loss to all stakeholders of the Tata Group, including shareholders. They have also exposed the Tata Group to perilous violation of regulatory requirements, seeking to procure unpublished price sensitive information from listed Tata Group companies, breaking down governance,” said the statement. It said this had the potential to hurt shareholder value
Reacting, a Tata Sons spokesperson said, “The same Corporate Governance Guidelines, Mr. Mistry’s office is referring to, prescribes that a Tata employee must step down from the Boards of Tata companie, after he ceases to be a Tata employee. After being replaced as Chairman of Tata Sons, Mr. Mistry ceases to be a Tata employee. It is he who is violating the guidelines that he himself propounded, and not Tata.”
Countering Tata Sons spokesperson, a Mistry confidant said, “Mr. Mistry would have resigned from boards of companies had his removal from Tata Sons been legal and that’s what he is contesting for.”
