Noel Tata set to make debut at Tata Sons board meeting on November 21

Noel Tata was named chairman of Tata Trusts, which holds 66% in Tata Sons, after Ratan Tata passed away last month. Soon after, Noel was inducted into Tata Sons board as a Trusts nominee director

Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata, who’s also a Trusts nominee director at Tata Sons, is expected to attend the Tata Sons board meeting, scheduled for Thursday, according to sources. This will be his first presence at a Tata Sons board of directors’  meeting. In a unique setting, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran (popularly known as Chandra), who steers the board of the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate and sets the meeting agenda, will have the chairman of Tata Trusts at the meeting table in Bombay House along with the other directors.   

Tata Sons did not respond to a Business Standard query on the date of the board meeting or its agenda.    

 

After Tata Group chairman emeritus Ratan Tata passed away last month, his half brother and chairman of Trent Noel Tata was named chairman of Tata Trusts, which holds 66 per cent in Tata Sons. Soon after, Noel Tata was inducted into the Tata Sons board as a Trusts nominee director. The Tata Sons board has three nominee directors from Tata Trusts, the other two being TVS chairman emeritus Venu Srinivasan and former defence secretary Vijay Singh.  Among other directors, former Titan CEO Bhaskar Bhat’s term ended recently, making it a 10-member Tata Sons board.   

Sources refused to divulge the agenda of the board meeting but indications are that the Tata Sons stand on listing of the company may come up for a discussion even if it’s not part of the agenda. 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is yet to respond to a request by Tata Sons to exempt it from a mandatory listing. The request for exemption followed a classification by RBI two years ago, declaring Tata Sons as an upper-layer non banking finance company (NBFC) and making it mandatory to get listed by September 2025. Tata Sons subsidiary, Tata Capital, was also classified by the RBI as an upper layer NBFC, making it mandatory to list by September next. 

Tata Sons reportedly repaid around Rs 20,000 crore in debt a few months ago so that it’s not classified as an upper layer NBFC anymore and can avoid getting listed on a stock exchange.

 

However, Shapoorji Pallonji group, which owns over 18 per cent in Tata Sons, is in favour of listing the Tata holding company, according to reports.           

 

The meeting on Thursday assumes significance for the historical context. When Ratan Tata stepped down as Tata Sons chairman in 2012, Cyrus Mistry became the first chairman of the holding company not to hold the position of Tata Trusts chairman. Ratan Tata, as emeritus chairman of the Tata group continued to be the chairman of Tata Trusts till he passed away in October. Ratan Tata held the dual position of Tata Sons chairman and Tata Trusts chairman from 1991 to 2012. He retained the position of Tata Trusts chairman until his death on October 9, 2024. In 2022, Articles of Association of Tata Sons was amended to specifically state that no single person can assume the position of the chairman of both Tata Sons and Tata Trusts at the same time. 

In an unexpected development, Ratan Tata, as chairman emeritus of the group, had chaired a Tata Sons board meeting on October 24, 2016, when Cyrus Mistry was removed from the chairman’s position. After that, Ratan Tata was appointed interim chairman of Tata Sons till Chandra took charge as executive chairman on February 21, 2017.