The much-awaited Tata Sons board meeting has been postponed yet again to May 16. According to Indian Express sources, no reason has been given by the trust for rescheduling the meeting. 

Discussion on Tata Sons listing and the ongoing rift among trustees was expected to take centre stage at the Tata Sons board meeting. Alongside that discussions on trustee representation was also seen as a key agenda that was scheduled to be discussed.

Tata Sons listing: What’s the big concern?

The listing of Tata Sons has taken centre stage yet again after the Reserve Bank of India tightened oversight of what it considers systemically important shadow banks. Under the new rules, effective from July 1, the RBI will designate Tata Sons as a shadow bank, which would ultimately require it to be publicly listed.

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Earlier, in 2022, the RBI had classified Tata Sons as an “upper-layer” non-banking financial company and given it a three-year timeline to go public. However, the Tata Group managed to remain private by restructuring its debt and petitioning the RBI to classify it as a non-systemic entity.

Tata Sons listing: Ongoing rift among trustees

According to a recent Bloomberg report, Noel Tata is opposed to Tata Sons listing while trustees Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh are likely to advocate for the holding company to make the transition to the listed space.

As per a report by ANI, former trustee Mehli Mistry also stood firmly by his decision to vote against Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh to the Tata Education and Development Trust (TEDT). While explaining the rationale to Trustees, he referred to the same proceedings in which, according to him, trustees had wrongfully voted against him.

“Dear Siddharth, I do agree and stand by my decision not to renew the reappointment/tenure of both Venu and Vijay on the TEDT Trust. While I do shed crocodile tears for having to take such a decision, I was left with no other option. My affidavit in response to the change report for SDTT explains the reasons why I chose to take such a decision. Can you please also disclose how all the other trustees voted, as I read in the newspapers that other trustees have also voted? Kind regards,” Mistry wrote in response to the CEO’s letter to all trustees of the Tata Trusts, including Chairman Noel Tata.