In a first, Tata Sons likely to recast overseas ops

MUMBAI: In what might be the first restructuring exercise of its international operations, Tata Sons is scaling down the number of its offices outside the country to cut costs.

The restructuring involves either shutting down some of its overseas offices or managing the affairs through existing international offices of group companies, said people familiar with chairman N Chandrasekaran's strategy . The changes could make so me of the people redundant in the countries where Tata Sons operates. When reached out by TOI, a Tata Sons spokesperson, said that there is no such decision.

While Tata Sons has had offices in London (which was the first to be set up in 1907), Washington DC (2005) and Beijing (2006), the company in 2014 established offices in Dubai and Singapore.

The last two offices were set up under the leadership of former chairman Cyrus Mistry to explore opportunities for the group in the Middle East & North Africa and Asian regions. At present, directors of all the foreign units of Tata Sons report to Mukund Rajan, chief ethics and sustainability officer.

The people quoted earlier said that the proposed scaling down of overseas operations is part of the wider company restructure plan to pare down expenses. Some of the more established and key hubs will, however, continue. They added that the thinking at Tata Sons is that offices in certain countries are not required as some of the group companies already have a presence in these locations and their units can act as a central hub for the group.