Tata Sons to move out Cyrus Mistry from more group companies

Tata Sons, which removed Cyrus Mistry as chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has initiated the process of removing him from chairmanship at all group entities.

On Thursday, Tata Sons also issued a special notice to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of the group's hospitality arm Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) to consider removing Mistry as director.

''... a requisition is received from Tata Sons, a shareholder of Indian Hotels Company Ltd, holding 28.01 per cent of the paid-up equity share capital of the company to convene an extra-ordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the company... to pass the resolution for removal of C P Mistry as Director of the company,'' the hospitality major said in a BSE filing.

While Tata Sons holds nearly 73 per cent in TCS, and has its majority shareholding to push Mistry out, it cannot use its voting power in group companies where its stakes are much lower, as in the case of Indian Hotels.

Last week, independent directors of Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL), including banker Deepak Parekh and Nadir Godrej, met ahead of a scheduled board meeting and unanimously supported Mistry's leadership and continuance as chairman of the company.

After ousting Mistry from Tata Sons, the holding company of 100-odd companies, the majority stake holders, together referred to as Tata Trust, is looking at removing him from the operating companies as well.

The other independent directors of IHCL include Gautam Banerjee (of Blackstone Group), Keki Dadiseth (ex-HUL MD), Vibha Rishi Paul (former executive director, brand and human capital, Max India) and Ireena Vittal (former partner with McKinsey & Co).

Besides Mistry, his elder brother Shapoor Mistry is a director on the board of IHCL, as is CEO Rakesh K Sarna.

Ratan Tata-led interim management of Tata Sons is seeking to oust Mistry from his positions in the operating group firms, including IHCL and Tata Motors.

After replacing Mistry with Ishaat Hussain (See: Ishaat Hussain to replace Cyrus Mistry as chairman of TCS) the TCS board comprises apart from Hussain, Cyrus Mistry, director; N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD; and Aarthi Subramanian, global head of delivery, Excellence Group, with Aman Mehta, Venkatraman Thyagarajan, Clayton M Christensen, Ron Sommer, Vijay Kelkar and OP Bhatt holding charge as independent directors.