NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Tata Group’s charity arm Tata Trusts has voted to oust businessman Mehli Mistry from its board, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, the latest instance of boardroom friction at the philanthropic unit that controls a $180 billion empire.
Tata Trusts own 66% in Tata Sons, which in turn oversees 30 firms within one of India’s most storied business groups – including companies such as Air India, Tata Steel and Jaguar Land Rover.
A boardroom battle at the charity arm, a year after the death of the family patriarch Ratan Tata, has raised fears of a repeat of a bitter 2016 public spat with Tata Sons.
Mistry, a senior executive at M Pallonji Group which has business interests in logistics and shipping, was one of the trustees on the executive committee of Tata Trusts, whose charity work includes healthcare, education and rural support.
BOARD MAJORITY VOTE AGAINST REAPPOINTMENT
A majority of board members at Tata Trusts have decided to vote against his reappointment, said the person with direct knowledge who did not wish to be named as the decision isn’t public.
Repeated calls to a Tata Trusts spokesperson went unanswered on Tuesday. Mistry did not respond to an email seeking comment. India’s Economic Times newspaper first reported the decision.
The rift within Tata Trusts in recent weeks concerns which of its trustees should sit on the Tata Sons board, the general business direction taken by the group, and how to manage the planned exit of a minority shareholder, Reuters has previously reported.
At Tata Trusts, two factions have disagreed on a host of issues – one led by its chair, Noel Tata, and the other by Mistry, sources have earlier said.
The infighting came to light in September when the trust voted against a person from Noel’s camp being reappointed to the Tata Sons board.
That prompted the Indian government to urge Tata Trusts to sort out its differences, in what was a rare intervention in corporate matters, Reuters reported this month.
(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra; Editing by David Holmes)
