Nusli Wadia voted out of Tata Motors

More than 71 per cent shareholders of Tata Motors voted for the removal of Independent Director Nusli Wadia, as per results announced on Friday.

The final votes were cast at the Company’s Extraordinary General Meeting held in Mumbai late on December 22.

Tata Sons, the promoter of Tata Motors, had moved a resolution for the removal of Mr. Wadia as director of the company and this resolution was put to vote.

Even though majority shareholders voted against him, Mr. Wadia had found support from most institutional and retail shareholders.

While 99.96 per cent of promoters’ votes were in favour of the resolution for the removal of Mr. Wadia, 50.06 per cent shareholders from the institutional investor category supported it.

It meant 49.94 per cent shareholders from the institutional category voted against the resolution, indicating their support for Mr Wadia. In the retail category 39.36 per cent voted in favour of the resolution while 60.64 per cent voted against.

‘Wadia’s victory’

The voting pattern at Tata Motors indicated that most public and retail investors did not approve of the resolution put forth by Tata Sons, as public shareholders put together accounted for 53.57 per cent against the resolution while 46.43 per cent supported it.

The Wadia Group has claimed that since non-promoter shareholders of Tata Motors had backed Nusli Wadia, it was a victory for him. “The majority of independent vote comprising Non-promoter Public and Institutional shareholders supported the Independent Director (Mr Wadia)” according to a statement from the Group.

It said in fact, only 49.8 per cent votes had been cast in favour of the resolution out of the total voting power available. “If one were to look at the non-promoter voting, abstinence amounted to 44.4 per cent, and only 25.8 per cent votes were cast in favour of the resolution,” the statement said.