Tata Steel Europe’s negative returns pose grave risk to Group: Mistry

MUMBAI: Up against Tata Sons’ move to remove him as director of Tata Steel, ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry on Tuesday defended his leadership of the company, especially the handling of European operations, saying that the huge capital employed in it was earning negative returns and posed a risk to the entire group.

He also lashed out at “insinuations that Tata Steel board only looked at UK investments through a short term financial lens” saying it was “furthest from the truth”.

In a representation to the Board of Directors of Tata Steel ahead of an EGM, which is to consider a special resolution moved by Tata Sons to remove him as director on December 21, Mistry said the sole premise of the step was his “removal from the Chairmanship of Tata Sons, which was illegal to begin with”. “There have been insinuations that the Board of Tata Steel only looked at the UK investments through a short term financial lens. This is furthest from the truth...,” he wrote. Mistry cited “continued investments in these assets, as well as the significant amount of management bandwidth devoted to optimise operations” in order to refute the allegations.

While asking the board to circulate his representation to its shareholders so that they can take “an informed decision”, he drew attention to the European operations saying the total amount of capital employed there, which is “earning negative returns posed a risk to the overall group”