Bhaskar Bhat quits Tata Chemicals board
‘Asked Mistrytoquit, but board ignored my concerns’
Bhaskar Bhat resigned as director of Tata Chemicals saying the company was facing a threat due to loss of confidence in Chairman Cyrus Mistry by the company’s promoter, Tata Sons Limited.
As soon as the Tata Chemicals board meeting started on Thursday at Bombay House, Bhat asked Mistry to quit as the chairman but the rest of the board did not support Bhat. “The risks I cited were not discussed. I just hoped that good sense prevails on the directors and remove Mistry. When the board did not listen to my views and I saw the statement to the BSE, I decided to tender my resignation,” he said. “To send out a comfort statement to shareholders that all is well is not right,” Bhat told this paper. Tata Chemicals has four independent directors on its board: Nasser Munjee, Nusli Wadia, YS P Thorat and Vibha Paul Rishi.
On Friday, Tata Chemicals said promoter Tata Sons has called an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to remove Wadia and Mistry as directors of the company. Earlier, in a statement to the stock exchanges, Bhat said the contents and spirit of the independent directors’ statement has diluted the views he had expressed in the board meeting, especially regarding the threat the company faced on account of loss of confidence of the promoter in the chairman. “Several important issues I expressed seem to have been completely ignored.” He did not elaborate on the risks but said no voting took place on Mistry remaining as chairman.
“No one was taking on the elephant in the room. I said it was not kosher with what was going on,” he said. “It was not my intention to precipitate the matter and hence I have decided to quit.”
Bhaskar Bhat has been the managing director of Titan Industries since 2002. Bhat said he was not a Tata Sons nominee on Tata Chemicals board and had joined the board after an invite from the Tata Chemicals board.
In a statement to the stock exchanges, Tata Chemicals had on Thursday said that its independent directors unanimously affirmed their confidence in the board, its chairman and the management in the conduct of the company’s business. The support to Mistry came within a week of the independent directors of Indian Hotels Co Ltd expressing their support to him. The independent directors have said Tata Sons was punishing Mistry for the bad acquisitions made by Ratan Tata.
The Tata Chemicals statement said its directors recalled and reaffirmed their earlier assessment and evaluation, of 2015 and 2016, of Mistry and of the company’s board. The independent directors also considered an earlier statement by the Tata Chemicals board 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.”