“I am a victim and not a beneficiary of investment in shares of Tata Teleservices,’’ declared C. Sivasankaran, Chairman of Siva Group.
Accusing Cyrus P Mistry, the ousted Chairman of Tata Sons, of having “selective dementia’’, Mr. Sivasankaran demanded that the Siva Group be compensated for the huge investment loss it had suffered in Tata Teleservices Ltd. (TTSL) primarily due to mismanagement.
He put the loss to the Siva Group at over Rs.3,000 crore.
“The Tata Group has a legal and moral obligation to compensate for the losses of capital and opportunity cost incurred by the Siva Group,’’ he said in a notice to Tata Sons, Tata Teleservices and NTT DoCoMo of Japan.
Attacks MistryLaunching a scathing attack on Mr. Mistry, he said the ousted Chairman was dragging his group in its spat with Rata Tata. Stating that his group was denied a board position when it invested in Tata Teleservices, Mr. Sivasankaran squarely blamed the Tatas and NTT DoCoMo for the financial plight of Tata Teleservices.
Asserting that Mr. Mistry knew the background of his Group’s investment in Tata Teleservices, he accused the former Chairman of Tata Sons of deliberately spreading incomplete version of the story.
The notice held the three — Tata Sons, Tata Teleserves and NTT DoCoMo — “responsible individually and collectively for treating the minority Siva Grop unfairly and discriminatorily.’’ The three were accused of causing the Siva Group losses intentionally and “gaining at its expenses.’’ Asserting that their behaviour “is despicable,” it warned them of consequences for “ignoring the moral and legal rights of minority shareholder’’ while securing the exit of NTT DoCoMO from Tata Teleservices.
Elaborating the context in which the investment was made, Mr. Sivasankaran said “mutual trust and moral responsibilities’’ had played a key role in Siva Group picking up shares in Tata Teleservices. Mr. Mistry had been briefed on these factors way back in 2013 itself, he said. Pointing out that Siva Group’s investment in Tata Teleservices was largely a Tata Group-assisted one (through fund support and provision of comfort letter), he, nevertheless, asserted that it was also occasioned by the fact that Tata Teleservices was in dire need of equity infusion at that time. Mr. Sivasankaran said Siva Group’s initial investment was the trigger for others such as Temasek and NTT DoCoMo to pitch in funds into Tata Teleservices at a higher premium subsequently.
Regretting that an investment done on trust had soured, Mr. Sivasankaran said a solution could yet be found through mediation.
“I want an amicable understanding and resolution of the issue,’’ he said.
