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26 October
2016
 |
| Tata Sons Group (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
Over 48
hours after the unceremonious ouster of Cyrus P Mistry as Chairman of Tata
Sons, the exact reason for the board ganging up against him remains a mystery.
Meanwhile, Mistry has started singing which shows deep fissures in the group.
In the first few hours of Ratan Tata ousting Mr Mistry, a drastic and unprecedented
action for a group of this size and global presence, many heads of key market
organisations had come to believe that we would soon hear of some serious
transgression or financial irregularity by Mr Mistry. Only something as serious
as this would warrant such an extreme action, to protect the group's interests.
It now appears nothing of the sort has happened. What is worse, investors of
all Tata group companies remain in the dark and are utterly confused about what
is going on. Meanwhile, serious questions are being raised about the way the
group is being run.
While good
governance rules and disclosure norms require stock exchanges to be provided
detailed explanation, even for less significant corporation actions, Tata Sons,
as the group holding company has escaped this because it is unlisted. However,
since Mr Tata has chosen to write a cryptic letter to the Prime Minister of
India informing him of his 'temporary' return to the helm of the Tata Group,
maybe the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) should tell Mr Tata that he owes an
expiation to the millions of investors of Tata group companies. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
The Tata
group is treated with such reverence that neither the market regulator, nor the
stock exchanges on which the group companies are listed, nor the Finance
Ministry have bothered to ask why the board has chosen to take such a drastic
step and followed it up by removing Mr Mistry's speeches and interviews and
disbanding the management committee he had set up.
Why does
Tata Sons owe an explanation to investors of all Tata group companies that are
listed on stock exchanges? We can think of three immediate reasons.
First, that Tata Sons collects a brand equity fee or royalty from each company
for using the coveted "Tata" name. An action by the Tata Sons Board,
which affects that brand equity, needs to be explained to shareholders,
especially since they have already suffered a notional loss in their
shareholding. The Total Investment
& Insurance Solutions
Secondly, Mr
Tata as the new, interim group chairman made it a point to meet group chief
executives (CEOs) and assured them about continuity. We learn from media
reports that he did not offer them any explanation but merely told them that he
was proud of them. He needs to provide the same assurance to investors, but not
with platitudes, but with a detailed explanation. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Thirdly,
Tata Sons and its board are not going to be able to silence everybody. As we go
to press, Mr Mistry is already hitting back and has begun to release a lot of
information that will expose all the warts that have remained hidden for decades. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
For
instance, as per a report from the Economic Times, Mr Mistry says the
decision had left him 'shocked beyond words'. “I have to say that the board of
directors has not covered itself with glory. To 'replace' your chairman without
so much as a word of explanation and without affording him an opportunity to
defend himself...must be unique in the annals of corporate history,” Mr Mistry
was quoted as saying from the email in the newspaper report. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
CNBC TV-18,
which acessed the five-page letter written by Mr Mistry says lack of
explanation has led to all manners of speculation and harmed his as well as
Tata Group’s reputation. Mr Mistry mentioned that the forensic probe had
revealed fraudulent transactions worth Rs22 crore in AirAsia. “I had made my
objection known on the airline venture (AirAsia).” he wrote adding, “I was
pushed into the position of a ‘Lame Duck’ Chairman.” The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
He also disclosed that Tata’s nano project was a burden on company and only emotional reasons have kept it from closing the project. He said that Nano has consistently lost money. “Any turnaround plan for Tata Nano required Tata Motors to shut it down,” reads the letter quoted in CNBC TV-18 report.
He also disclosed that Tata’s nano project was a burden on company and only emotional reasons have kept it from closing the project. He said that Nano has consistently lost money. “Any turnaround plan for Tata Nano required Tata Motors to shut it down,” reads the letter quoted in CNBC TV-18 report.
A lot of
dirty linen will be washed in public over the next few weeks - we may even see
the same mud-slinging we saw when the Ambani brothers fought. Shouldn't
investors have some guidance on what to believe and what to ignore? Silence is
not the answer. The Total Investment
& Insurance Solutions
Finally, in
the absence of any revelation of malfeasance or dubious conduct on the part of
Cyrus Mistry, one needs to ask the Tata Sons board about its own double
standards. Why was the Board silent about the less than pristine behaviour of
Mr Ratan Tata personally and key Tata officials in the 2G scam? Why did the
taped conversation of the Tata's New Delhi lobbyist Niira Radia, or Mr Tata's
letter to Tamil Nadu’s former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi not outrage the Tata
Sons Board enough to want a change? It smacks of double standards. The
tapes showed that Mr Tata, who earlier in 2010 had warned that India would turn
into a banana republic if corruption were not contained, was also a beneficiary
of A Raja's corrupt dealings. The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
In fact, the
developments of the past 48 hours at the Tata group once again expose the hollowness
of India's corporate governance regulations. The mighty will continue to ignore
the rules and get away with it. Meanwhile, we will continue to watch how this
mess unravels over the next few months. All we can say is that the war has just
begun. The Total Investment &
Insurance Solutions
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