 "Nusli Wadia")
Nusli Wadia, a veteran of many a corporate battle that earned him the title of ‘Corporate Samurai’, is likely to throw his weight behind Cyrus Mistry in the latter’s war against Tata. Wadia, an independent director on the boards of Tata Chemicals, Tata Steel and Tata Motors, gave favourable reports on Mistry as chairman of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) of the three listed companies for FY16.
Though Wadia had given a positive report, Mistry, being the executive chairman of Tata Sons then, did not accept any commission from these companies.
The board meeting of Tata Chemicals will be held on November 10, followed by Tata Steel a day later. Tata Motors board will meet on November 14. All the three meetings will be held in Mumbai.
Interestingly, Tata Sons Interim Chairman Ratan Tata, who is also Chairman Emeritus of Tata Steel, can legally attend the meeting on Friday and this could bring both Tata and Wadia face-to-face for the first time in a boardroom since Tata retired as chairman of Tata Steel in 2012. As chairman of NRC, it would be difficult for Wadia to oppose Mistry, after signing a good report card for him, said insiders.
With Wadia’s backing, Mistry’s support base will swell to include corporate doyens like HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, Indian Hotels director Nadir Godrej and former Hindustan Unilever Chairman Keki Dadiseth.
Wadia did not respond to e-mail queries. A Tata Sons spokesperson did not comment on the forthcoming board meetings.
The 48-year-old Mistry was ousted as Tata Sons chairman by its board on October 24 that included newly inducted independent directors TVS Group Chairman Venu Srinivasan, Bain Capital managing director Amit Chandra and Piramal Group chairman Ajay Piramal. The Tata Sons board appointed 78-year-old Ratan Tata as interim chairman.
Tata old-timers said, Wadia, 72, was first offered the top job as Tata Group chairman by J R D Tata way back in the 1990s but he refused to take it up and instead advised J R D to make Ratan Tata the group chairman. Tata took over as Tata Group chairman in 1991 and used the first five years of his chairmanship to remove group satraps like Darbari Seth, Russi Mody and Ajit Kerkar. In these battles with Tata Group satraps, Wadia played an important role in advising Tata and supporting him to the hilt.
But now the tables may have turned, said a group insider, asking not to be named. And that’s because not only the NRC of listed companies, the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of Tata Sons too gave a good performance report of Mistry. The last one in June this year had recommended a pay raise. But, as Mistry himself capped his salary rise at six per cent, it helped Mistry’s cause. The NRC member of Tata Sons, who took 86 per cent rise in salary from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 1.3 crore, voted against Mistry in the October 24 meeting, insiders said.
The Rs 22-crore fraud at AirAsia India, exposed by Mistry in his letter to Tata Sons board, was the last straw. “The senior independent directors of listed Tata Group companies are aware of these developments and will take a call accordingly,” said an insider.
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