Cyrus Mistry claims moral victory

Mumbai: Ousted Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry, who was removed as director from the board of TCS at the special EGM on Tuesday, claimed a pyrrhic victory  pointing out that over 70 per cent of non-promoter TCS shareholders either voted against the resolution to remove him or abstained.

Tata Sons — the promoters — have a 73 per cent stake in TCS so the voting on the special resolution calling for the ouster of Mr Mistry was a foregone conclusion.

Mr Mistry made it clear that the war between him and Ratan Tata, patriarch of the group was not over. He said in a thank you letter to shareholders on Wednesday, “I will continue to strive and work at various forums to be voice for change in the Tata Group, its governance and protection of stakeholders’ rights. The outcome at TCS has only made my resolve to save the heritage of the Tata Group stronger, and I will continue to work on the crying need for  governance reform.”

Mr Mistry  said “We all knew the foregone outcome of the TCS EGM. However, I made a plea to shareholders to vote to save the soul of the Tata Group.”

He said besides the 70 per cent, a reported 78 per cent of the votes cast by retail investors was against the resolution to remove me; and nearly 43 per cent of the votes cast by institutional investors were against the resolution to remove me.
The voting in TCS he concludes, is a strong signal from minority shareholders that the need for governance reform must not go unheeded.

TCS in a statement to the NSE on Wednesday said that Mr Mistry is “hereby removed from the office of director of the company with effect from the date of this meeting”.

TCS followed Tata Industries which had removed Mr Mistry as a director on Monday in line with a directive from Tata Sons that called for its operating companies to hold EGMs to oust Mr Mistry from their various boards. TCS, the flagship company of the group was the latest to do so.