Tata Sons gets investors' nod for private tag; trouble for Mistry group

Mumbai: Stakeholders of Tata Sons on Wednesday voted to amend the USD 103 billion company’s status from a public limited company to a private limited one.

The approval vote was garnered during the company’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday. Shareholders approved the amendment of the company’s Articles of Association (AoA) and Memorandum of Association (MoA).

This move comes amid aggressive opposition from Tata Son’s ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry. The change to a private limited company will mean that the Mistry group will not be able to sell their stake in the company without approval of the board.

Tata Sons’ logic behind this change is that it will mean less compliance, according to a report by Moneycontrol. It will also mean a restriction on transfer of shares.

Currently, Tata Trusts owns 66 per cent of Tata Sons while Mistry’s Sharpoonji Paloonji firms owns 18.4 per cent and the rest 15.6 per cent is held by group companies, retail shareholders and some members of the Tata family.

This move comes almost a year after Mistry was ousted as chairman of the Tata Group following which a bitter battle ensued. The company roped in N Chandrasekaran as Chairman in January, 2017.