Cyrus Mistry chairs Tata Beverages board meet

MUMBAI: Ousted chairman of Tata Sons, Cyrus Mistry on Wednesday dispelled speculation that he would resign from the chairmanships of all group companies and chaired a rather uneventful and regular board meeting of Tata Global Beverages at Bombay House.

Top officials close to the development said Mistry was at the meeting for over four hours and regular discussions were conducted around company operations and progress. There were no discussions or questions by any board members about Mistry’s dismissal as Tata Sons chairman.

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TGBL stock fell on Wednesday by 3.1% to Rs 145.40. Fund managers and market watchers are wondering how long Mistry would continue to helm the boards of major group companies. If Mistry resigns on his own, then there is no problem. If he does not resign on his own, the group may find it difficult to remove him as chairman of the four big listed companies --TCS, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Global Beverages.

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Dismissing a chairman of a listed company is a tortuous process and requires a vote by shareholders. TGBL recently announced that it is exploring multiple options, including restructuring or sale of its China operations.

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At the last AGM, Mistry said the company has challenges in China. “We continue to have those challenges and the reason was from a production perspective,” he said, responding to a shareholder query. The obligations, on account of the China business, were around Rs 5 crore per annum. “For China, we are exploring different options, which could be restructuring or sale, but these are still in the exploration stage,” Mistry said.