TVS chief Srinivasan finds seat on influential Tata Trusts

MUMBAI: The Tata Trusts has made TVS Group chairman Venu Srinivasan a trustee of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), the main shareholder of Tata Sons with a 28% stake in the holding company of the $108-billion Tata Group.

Srinivasan was brought on board after renowned lawyer Darius Khambata quit SDTT. Khambata resigned on October 25, a day after the majority of Tata Sons' directors voted for Cyrus Mistry's removal as its chairman. Srinivasan, who is also a director at Tata Sons, had voted for Mistry's ouster at the company's board meeting. The 63-year-old businessman is the only non-Tata person who now sits on the boards of both Tata Sons and SDTT.

Srinivasan is part of the search committee which will select the next chairman of Tata Sons, where Ratan Tata has taken charge as interim chief. Khambata had resigned from the trust citing other professional commitments. Rata Tata's association with Srinivasan began in the 1990s through industry bodies. In August this year, he appointed Srinivasan to Tata Sons board along with another billionaire industrialist, Ajay Piramal.

Last Friday, Srinivasan's wife Mallika, an independent director with Tata Steel, didn't endorse Mistry's leadership at the company's board meeting. The chairperson of Tractors and Farm Equipment is also on the Tata Global Beverages board, which is set to meet on November 15 to consider the company's second quarter financial results for the current fiscal.

Khambata, who was additional solicitor general of India and Maharashtra advocate general, had a short tenure as an SDTT trustee compared to V R Mehta and Amrita Patel, who have been there for at least five years. Khambata had joined SDTT in 2014-15.

The other trustees of SDTT are old Tata hands: R K Krishna Kumar, N A Soonawala and R Venkataramanan. The recent induction of Srinivasan on SDTT indicates the rising number of non-Parsis on the board of the flagship Trust. Soonawala is the only Parsi on the board of SDTT. Besides SDTT, Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) is another major shareholder of Tata Sons with a 24% stake. Of the total eight trustees of SRTT, four are Parsis — N A Soonawala, Jimmy Tata, Shirin Bharucha and Keki Dadiseth. The other members of SRTT are R K Krishna Kumar, Nasser Munjee, Amit Chandra and R Venkataramanan.

Amit Chandra, managing director of Bain Capital, is the only one who sits on the boards of both SRTT and Tata Sons. Chandra, too, had voted for Mistry's removal at Tata Sons' board meeting on October 24. Both SDTT and SRTT are headed by Ratan Tata.