Jaitley to meet directors on Tata companies, Nusli Wadia, Mallika Srinivasan, Nasser Munjee, to stock of the dispute
Arun Jaitley, minister of finance and corporate affairs, has summoned independent directors of Tata Group companies for a meeting next week to take stock of the Tata-Mistry dispute.
This is the first indication that the government is stepping in decisively, after Ratan Tata, interim chairman, and Cyrus Mistry, former chairman, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi separately in the last week of October, a few days after the boardroom battle broke out at Bombay House.
Senior finance ministry officials told DNA Money that both the warring interim chairman and ousted chairman would not be part of the meeting. They revealed that the ministries have been in touch "with some senior officials of the group informally".
Finance and corporate affairs ministries have till now kept out of one of the biggest boardroom fracas and had decided not to actively meddle into it.
An official said Jaitley would be meeting a team of independent directors led by Bombay Dyeing and Britannia Ltd promoter Nusli Wadia, who is also on the board of Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Steel, in the capacity of corporate affair minister.
"They (independent directors) have been called for a meeting, which is likely to be held either on Wednesday or Thursday next week, by the minister to take stock of the situation and look at a solution," he said.
The source said among the others who will meet the minister are former chairman of State Bank of India Om Prakash Bhatt (on the boards of Tata Steel and TCS), Tractors and Farm Equipment chairman and CEO Mallika Srinivasan (on the boards of Tata Global and Tata Steel), Future Consumer head marketing and group strategy & consumer director Vibha Paul Rishi (Indian Hotels Company and Tata Chemicals), and DCB Bank chairman Nasser Munjee (Tata Chemicals).
As the minister of corporate affairs, Jaitley can look into any violation of corporate governance concerns that may arise in any corporate house. His ministry is responsible for the administration of the Companies Act 2013, the Companies Act 1956, the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 and other such Acts and rules and regulations for regulating the functioning of the corporate sector.
Former chief executive of The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) Sutanu Sinha said while what was happening at Tata group was their internal matter, the government should be concerned about it relates to sensitive issues like minority shareholders rights, transparency, corporate governance and others.
"In my opinion, it is the right move (by the ministry) as it involves Indian resources and assets and many banks have invested in the group. It could also impact the foreign investment negatively," he said.
After Mistry was sacked as the chairman of Tata group's parent company Tata Sons, he had written an email to Tata Sons directors narrating incidences of breach of good corporate practices in many of Tata group companies and possible writedowns of $1.17 billion by the group because of "legacy hotspots".
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