Mistry, Wadia likely to address shareholders at Tata Steel extraordinary general meeting

Tata Steel’s ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry and Board Director Nusli Wadia are likely to address shareholders at the December 21 extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to present their side of the story in the ongoing Tata-Mistry board room battle.

Both Mistry and Wadia want to make written and oral representation to the firm’s shareholders in respect of their removal, Tata Steel said on Saturday.

Mistry was on Friday ousted as Chairman of the firm, the third Tata Group entity to do so.

Tata Steel has also called the EGM next month for the removal of Mistry and Wadia from the directorship of the Board.

“Mistry has informed the company that he intends to make both, written and oral representation to the shareholders in respect of his removal,” Tata Steel said in a regulatory filing.

“The company will in terms of Section 169(4) of the Companies Act, 2013, subject to proviso of the said Section and if the time permits it to do so, circulate the written representation to the shareholders,” it added.

Tata Steel’s EGM notice further said the company, subject to the proviso of the said Section and if the time permits it to do so, circulate written representation to the shareholders.

Tata Steel said Wadia too has informed that he intends to make both written and oral representation to the shareholders in respect of his removal.

Wadia has been supporting Mistry, who was ousted as Chairman of Tata Sons - the holding company of the Tata group firms. Mistry however continued to be at the helm and/or director of some of the group companies.

In further escalation of the boardroom brawl at one of the country’s biggest business conglomerates, the 10-member board of Tata Steel by “majority consent” removed Mistry as Chairman and named O P Bhatt, an independent director and former head of State Bank of India, as interim head.

Tata Steel is the third group firm to remove Mistry as chairman. First Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) removed him as chairman but that ouster was not through a vote but by virtue of Tata Sons holding a commanding 73.26 per cent stake in the India’s largest software services firm.

Then on November 15, seven out of 10 board members of Tata Global Beverages voted him out.