Tata Sons Replaces Cyrus Mistry as Chairman, Ratan Tata is Interim Boss

Mumbai: Tata Sons on Monday announced that its Board has replaced Cyrus P Mistry as Chairman of Tata Sons at a meeting held in Mumbai. The board has named Ratan Tata as interim chairman of the over $100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate.

Tata Sons is the holding company of the group.

Mistry was chosen as Tata's successor in November 2011 and was appointed Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons, whose board he had entered in 2006. He was made chairman on the basis of his representation from Shapoorji Palonji, the largest shareholder in Tata Sons.

“The Board in its collective wisdom and on the recommendation of the principal shareholders (Tata Trusts) decided that it may be appropriate to consider a change for the long-term interest of Tata Sons and the Tata Group," said a Tata group spokesman.

Mistry took over the reins of the conglomerate when the veteran industrialist retired on December 29, 2012, when he turned 75.

After taking charge, he had to face some challenging situations such as the decision to sell Tata Steel UK in the wake of mounting losses.

The Tata group is also engaged in a legal battle with Japan's Docomo over the split of their telecom joint venture Tata Docomo.

Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the ouster had to do with performance issues and “issues concerning Tata Sons’ ethics". Sources also said the Shapoorji Palonji group claims the move is illegal as a 15-day notice should have been given.

In an interview with an in-house magazine, Mistry had recently stated that the group "should not be afraid of taking tough decisions for the right reasons, with compassion" amid "challenging situations" confronted by some of the group's businesses that would require hard and bolder decisions on pruning portfolio.

This was in contrast to steps taken by Ratan Tata, who led the group into some notable acquisitions, starting from Tetley by Tata Tea for $450 million in 2000, to steelmaker Corus by Tata Steel in 2007 and the landmark Jaguar Land Rover in 2008 for $2.3 billion by Tata Motors.

During Ratan Tata's tenure, the group's revenues grew manifold, totalling $100.09 billion (around Rs 475,721 crore) in 2011-12 from a turnover of a mere Rs 10,000 crore in 1991.

Born on July 4, 1968, Mistry completed his graduation in civil engineering from London's Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine and followed it up with a masters in Management from the London Business School.

(With PTI inputs)