Tata Sons' shareholders continuous strife may affect decision making at board level: S&P

S&P Global Ratings on Monday said the ongoing discord between the shareholders of Tata Group holding firm Tata Sons Ltd, has created uncertainty at the board level for group companies and could lead to slow decision-making in these entities.

Expecting the group companies to be all professionally managed, the US-based firm said that it hoped that all these firms will continue to deliver on their business and financial plans as they are "currently unaffected by the developments". 

"The continuing discord between the shareholders of Tata Sons Ltd (unrated), the holding company of the India-based Tata group, has created uncertainty at the board level for the group companies," S&P Global Ratings said.

"We will review our assessment if we see greater control of Tata Sons over the board, strategy, and cash flows of individual companies," S&P said. 

S&P said it "notes" the sudden removal of Tata Sons Ltd. chairman Cyrus Mistry on November 4, and some independent directors, and allegations and counter-allegations on various matters raise corporate governance issues for various group companies.