Mistry Overruled: Tata Sons Passes Resolution to Take Company Pvt

Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry.

(Photo: IANS)

Shareholders of Tata Sons Ltd passed a resolution allowing the parent of the salt-to-software group to change its legal status from a public to a privately held company, according to people familiar with the development.

All the resolutions placed before shareholders at its annual general meeting on Thursday were passed with requisite majority, those in the know told BloombergQuint on the condition of anonymity. The nod comes on a day the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal granted ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry a waiver from the minimum shareholding requirement to bring charges of mismanagement and oppression against Tata Sons.

Also Read: Partial Win for Cyrus Mistry as NCLAT Lets Him Challenge Tata Sons

Last week, the holding company of the $103-billion Tata Group had made the proposal, which would restrict stakeholders, including Mistry, from selling their shares to external investors.

The proposal was opposed by Mistry, whose family owns nearly 18.4 percent stake. Mistry was ousted last October after a boardroom coup led by Ratan Tata, which triggered a legal battle that’s still on.

One of the Mistry family-run firms had written to directors of six listed Tata companies, urging them to vote against the proposal as it would lead to bigger challenges in disinvesting their stake.

(This article was originally published in BloombergQuint.)