Tata's newly-appointed chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran says he will focus on boosting shareholder returns.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Indian conglomerate Tata has a new boss. He is Natarajan Chandrasekaran, who takes over four months after his predecessor Cyrus Mistry was ousted.
Chandra – as the new chairman is known – has been promoted internally having worked for Tata for 30 years and hugely improved profits when he ran the group’s IT outsourcing company Tata Consultancy Services.
He is promising much needed growth, saying in a statement he plans to bring the group closer together to leverage its collective strength and “bring greater rigour to our capital allocation policies and deliver superior returns to our shareholders”.
Congratulations to Chandra! See link. pic.twitter.com/mJe5TpavYE
— Ratan N. Tata (@RNTata2000) January 13, 2017
Outside the company’s headquarters in Mubai he told reporters: “The group is the hearts and minds of people all over India and all over the globe; I will always keep that in mind and do everything we need to do to delight all the people who are proud of the group. And, [I] will work together with all the business leaders in the group to drive a lot of discipline on capital allocation and shareholder returns.”
First chairman of
TataCompanies</a> with no family links to the Tata takes over today<a href="https://t.co/9c36r0zu9H">https://t.co/9c36r0zu9H</a></p>— Tamal Bandyopadhya (TamalBandyo) February 21, 2017
Boardroom battle
Cyrus Mistry left following a bitter boardroom battle after he tried to scale back the debt-laden sprawling group which produces everything from salt to steel to software, construction equipment to cars to coffee.
The very public fight between Mistry and patriarch Ratan Tata took a toll on the group’s credibility.
Mistry had warned of big writedowns and stressed the need for governance reforms at Tata Sons, the charitable trusts that own two-thirds of the holding firm, and Tata group companies.
Tata Sons has denied Mistry’s accusations and both sides are now involved in a legal tussle.
Tata is India’s biggest conglomerate, but is best known outside the country for Jaguar Land Rover which the company has said probably accounts for much of its profits along with Tata Consultancy Services.
'The best of the industry &
TCS</a> is yet to come'— N Chandrasekaran & Rajesh Gopinathan talk about the way ahead <a href="https://t.co/0Em9Wmr5t2">https://t.co/0Em9Wmr5t2</a> <a href="https://t.co/3u0zCke3TI">pic.twitter.com/3u0zCke3TI</a></p>— Tata Group (TataCompanies) February 17, 2017
