Top Tata group leaders meet Amit Shah, Sitharaman amid Tata Trusts rift

Senior leaders of the Tata Group, including Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata and Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday as tensions escalated within Tata Trusts over board appointments and governance matters.

Noel Tata, Chandrasekaran, Tata Trusts Vice Chairman Venu Srinivasan, and trustee Darius Khambata arrived together at Shah’s residence in the evening, where Sitharaman later joined them.

The meeting comes amid growing divisions among trustees of Tata Trusts, the principal shareholder of Tata Sons, over governance issues that could affect decision-making at India’s most valuable conglomerate.

Tata Trusts, a cluster of philanthropic bodies that control the group through Tata Sons, is said to be split between one faction aligned with Noel Tata, who succeeded Ratan Tata as chairman following his death, and another led by trustee Mehli Mistry, a long-time associate of the Shapoorji Pallonji family, which holds an 18.37% stake in Tata Sons.

The pending issue of Tata Sons’ potential public listing, which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had mandated after classifying the company as an “upper layer” non-banking financial firm in 2022, may also have been discussed.

Tata Sons applied earlier this year to deregister as an NBFC to avoid the listing requirement and is awaiting a decision from the central bank.

The divisions within the Trusts deepened after the exit of Vijay Singh, a former defence secretary and close aide of Ratan Tata, from the Tata Sons board as a nominee director. The subsequent proposal to induct Mehli Mistry to the board further strained ties.

Tensions escalated after a trustee suggested in an internal email that Srinivasan could be removed from the Tata Sons board, which some insiders interpreted as an attempt to consolidate control over the holding company, reported ET.

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, battling heavy debt, has long sought to unlock liquidity from its stake in Tata Sons through a potential listing.

“The primary question in front of the government, considering how significant and important the Tata Group is to the country's economy, is whether it can let an individual take control of it,” PTI quoted a source as saying. “The infighting among trustees of Tata Trusts has an impact on Tata Sons.”

The Tata Group, founded in 1868, includes nearly 400 companies, of which around 30 are listed, including Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, and Air India.