Cyrus Mistry chairs Tata Tele board meeting

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Ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry continued to chair group companies and today he chaired a meeting of the distressed telecom arm of the group, Tata Teleservices, at the Bombay House, the group headquarters here this afternoon.

Mistry entered the building past 1300 hrs and was inside till about 1530 hrs.

The privately held Tata Teleservices board is led by Mistry as the chairman and Srinath Narasimhan as the managing director.

The executive directors include Ishaat Hussain who is also on the board of Tata Sons, and two DoCoMo representatives -- Hidetada Hayashi and Katsuhiko Yamagata. That apart the company has three independent directors in Bharati Rao, Vibha Paul Rishi and Narendra Jhadav who is a Rajya Sabha member.

Jadhav and Rishi confirmed the meeting to the media but refused to share the details of what was discussed at the meeting of the unlisted company.

Despite being removed as Tata Sons chairman, Mistry continues to hold chairmanship of several Tata group companies including some listed firms. Among these, he has already chaired board meetings of Tata Global Beverages and Indian Hotels after his removal as Tata Sons chairman on October 24.

Last week, independent directors of Indian Hotels issued a statement reposing their faith in Mistry's chairmanship.

Mistry's dealing with Tata Teleservices Japanese partner NTT Docomo, wherein he refused to buyout the 26 per cent stake of the Japanese firm citing RBI ban and let the matter reach an international arbitration tribunal in London with an adverse verdict, had found repeated mention in the commentary on what would have led to the surprise ouster of Mistry.

Some Tata Group sources said Mistry did not keep Tata Sons in the loop while taking decisions regarding the bleeding telecom venture and that he conducted himself in a manner which was not characteristic of the 'Tata culture and ethos'.

Mistry has denied all such speculations. In a letter to Tata Sons board members a day after his removal, he had said he was attempting to get a "potential player" in the consolidation of the industry and the attempt was to improve the bottomline.

Following the assault on media representatives last Friday by private security guards employed by the Tata Group outside the Bombay House, there were more than two dozen police personnel present outside the building today. PTI AA BEN BJ .