Tata Chemicals board backs Cyrus Mistry

Ina big boost to the Cyrus Mis try camp, the independent directors of Tata Chemicals have come out in full support of its Chairman Cyrus Mistry in a board meeting held at Bombay House — the headquarters of Tata Group — on Thursday.

“The independent directors unanimously affirmed their confidence in the board, its chairman and the management in the conduct of the company’s business,” Tata Chemicals said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

Tata Chemicals has four independent directors on its board: Nasser Munjee, Nusli Wadia, Y SP Thor at and Vibha Paul Rishi. Wadia, in addition to Tata Chemicals, also serves as the independent director on the boards of Tata Steel and Tata Motors and is the chairman of the Nomination and Remuneration Committees of these companies. The Tata Steel board is meeting on Friday and a similar outcome is expected by the Mistry camp from Tata Steel board. Just last week, the Indian Hotels Company’s (IHCL) independent directors had come out with a statement supporting Mistry in his endeavour to turn around the company.

The Tata Chemicals statement said its directors recalled and reaffirmed their earlier assessment and evaluation carried out in the years 2015 and 2016 of Mistry and of the company’s board and its functioning. “The independent directors referred to the minutes of the above meetings outcome of which was with the entire board at that time,” the statement said.

The independent directors also considered an earlier statement by Tata Chemicals board of directors recommending Mistry’s reappointment. “The independent directors considered the statement made by the company’s board of directors, which recommended and sought support for Mistry’s reappointment at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in August 2015,” the statement said.

Of the votes cast, 97.64 per cent were in favour of the reappointment at the company’s AGM in 2015. “Considering the above, the independent directors unanimously affirmed their confidence in the board, its chairman and the management in the conduct of the company’s business,” it said.

The independent directors are of the view that the group companies - Tata Motors, Tata Steel and IHCL - are in financial trouble, mainly due to bad acquisitions by Tata during his tenure, while Mistry is being made the fall guy. An independent director said on Thursday it was improper to destroy the reputation of Mistry, first by removing him as chairman of Tata Sons in the most humiliating way and then placing the legacy issues on his head.

The dispute has now put the independent directors and Mistry on the one side and Tata Sons board, led by Interim Chairman Ratan Tata, on the other. Mistry has received support from senior independent directors of Corporate India, including HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, former Hindustan Unilever Chairman Keki Dadiseth, Godrej Group’s Nadir Godrej and Wadia Group Chairman Nusli Wadia and DCB Bank Chairman Nasser Munjee on Thursday.

On October 24, Tata Sons, the holding company of the $103-billion Tata Group, said its board of directors had removed Mistry, as chairman of the conglomerate, and named Tata as interim chairman for four months.