After a bitter eight-week boardroom battle against Ratan Tata’s “illegal coup”, ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry on Monday quit from the boards of six listed companies, including Tata Motors and Indian Hotels. He vowed to shift his fight to a “larger platform” as the “coercive action taken by Tatas against various stakeholders was making him uneasy”.
In an interview to Business Standard, Mistry promised to take his fight against the Tatas to a legal forum but did not give details. “In the past eight weeks, I saw a lot of coercive action from the Tatas towards shareholders, debt holders and employees, which is making all the three uncomfortable. In various representations to shareholders, I had said it was not about me or about my position. My resignation proves that," Mistry said.
He would, however, continue to remain a director on the board of Tata Sons. The announcement of Mistry’s resignation came after he attended a “routine” Tata Sons board meeting during the day. Monday’s board meeting brought Mistry and his former mentor, Tata, in the same room for the first time (since October 24) but they did not speak to each other, according to sources.
“The interests of employees, shareholders and other stakeholders of the Tata group would be better served by (me) moving away from the forum of extraordinary general meetings (EGMs),” Mistry said in a two-page letter. “But, the time has come to take matters to their logical conclusion. I will work on protecting the interests of the Tata group and realising the vision of our founder Jamsetji Tata, until my last breath,” he added.
"Mistry can move the National Company Law Tribunal against Tata Sons for oppression of small shareholders. He can also move the Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) if he has information that the Trusts had indulged in inside-trading or did not follow corporate governance norms,” said R S Loona, a Mumbai-based corporate lawyer. (more)
