Noel among possible contenders for top job, confirms Tata

Ratan Tata, the 73-year-old chairman of Tata Group, today said his successor would be in place by the middle of the year and his half-brother was one of the contenders.

"I hope that by the first half of this year, we'll be able to define a suitable candidate with whom one can overlap for a short period of time before I move on," Tata said in an interview to CNN International's Talk Asia programme.

The business mogul, who heads a conglomerate comprising nearly 100 companies, is scheduled to retire in December 2012, when he turns 75. A search panel was formed last August to find his successor.

When asked about the chances of his successor not having Tata as the last name, the industrialist said he would not like to comment on that. " My step-brother is one of the candidates that is being considered," he said. He was referring to 53-year old Noel Tata.

Noel is chairman of the group's retail arm Trent and also the managing director of Tata International, a trading company. Tata, who has been heading the group as chairman of its promoter company ,Tata Sons, since 1991 and had joined the group in 1962, said it had been an exciting time for him.

On being asked who would succeed him, Tata said, "There is a committee that's been established and mandated with looking at internal candidates, external candidates and Indian expatriates. They have a short list of people who they're examining today. I've stayed away from that committee because I think it should operate independently, without the force of someone who is looking over their shoulder. I also hope that by first half of this year, we'll be able to define a suitable candidate with whom one can overlap for a short period of time before I move away," he said.

When asked whether the finalisation of his successor could cause a family strife, Tata said, "No, I don't think it would. I have no way to know."

Talking about the legacy he wanted to leave behind, Tata said, "I would like to leave behind a sustainable entity of a set of companies that operate in an exemplary manner in terms of ethics, values and continue what our ancestors left behind. Not my legacy alone, but a continuation of the legacy that extends over the last hundred years. I hope my successor will be as committed to that as I have tried to be," he added.

He went on to say that his only regret was not being 20 years younger in age, but maintained that he did not crave to stay on at the top of the country's biggest corporate empire.

‘Came close to getting married four times’
Revealing one of the best kept secrets of his personal life, the bachelor industrialist Ratan Tata said he had fallen in love and had come close to getting married as many as four times. But in the hindsight, he thinks it was not a bad thing to remain unmarried and the situation would have been more complex had he got married.

"When you asked whether I'd ever been in love, I came seriously close to getting married four times and each time it got close to there and I guess I backed off in fear of one reason or another," he said.