With little over two months after Tata Sons removed its chairman Cyrus Mistry, the promoter of India’s biggest conglomerate is likely to announce his successor this week, possibly as early as today.
According to a report by the Economic Times, an unscheduled board meeting was called at 4 pm on Thursday at Tata Sons but no agenda was announced, fuelling speculations that announcement may come even today.
Tata Sons had set a four month deadline to choose Mistry’s successor, which expires on February 24th.
A five-member selection panel was formed in last October to shortlist the candidates for the post of Tata Sons chairman. Besides Ratan Tata, the panel includes TVS Chairman Venu Srinivasan, Bain Capital’s Amit Chandra, former diplomat Ronen Sen and Kumar Bhattacharyya of Warwick University.
Except Bhattacharyya, all members of the panel are on the board of Tata Sons.
The daily cited one of the Tata officials to report that the company may also announce a post of Vice Chairman or two vice chairmen.
Interim chairman Ratan Tata is likely to assume his earlier role of Chairman Emeritus.
A company spokesperson denied a response saying that Tata Sons does not comment on speculation, the daily reported.
Names of Ratan’s half-brother Noel Tata, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) CEO Ralf Speth and former group CFO current TCS chairman Ishaat Hussain have been doing the rounds as possible contenders for the top post of $103 billion conglomerate.
Some outsiders and global executives have also been rumoured to be in the race. Names of Harish Manwani of Unilever, Ajit Jain of Hathway Berkshire, former Citi bank chief Vikram Pandit and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi have cropped up.
Some of them were also approached in 2012 before Cyrus Mistry was hand-picked to lead the group.
