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Tycoon Battles Tata to Unlock $17 Billion of His Wealth in India

Tycoon Pallonji Mistry is fighting a battle to Unlock $17 billion of his wealth in India. 

Tycoon Battles Tata to Unlock $17 Billion of His Wealth in India
Signage for Tata Communications Ltd. is displayed atop of the company’s headquarters in Mumbai. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Pallonji Mistry has about 85 percent of his estimated $19.9 billion fortune locked up in a legal battle with India’s largest conglomerate.

The conflict between Mistry and the Tata Group began with a boardroom coup in 2016, when the former’s son was ousted as chairman of the latter. The 89-year-old Mistry is one of the largest shareholders in Tata Sons Ltd., which controls the $100 billion conglomerate, and his family has since filed numerous lawsuits against the holding company’s board, alleging suppression of minority interests and governance lapses.

The courtroom battle has continued, most recently focused on a move by Tata Sons to restrict shareholders from freely selling their stake -- a change recognized by the government this month. Mistry, who derives an estimated $16.9 billion of his fortune from his 18.4 percent equity in Tata Sons, can no longer sell those holdings without the approval of a board his family has been fighting for two years.

Tycoon Battles Tata to Unlock $17 Billion of His Wealth in India

Mistry’s Shapoorji Pallonji group didn’t reply to an email seeking comment. A Tata Sons spokesman declined to comment.

While Tata Sons has always been a closely held private entity, it was considered a public limited company due to its size under an old legal provision. That allowed investors greater flexibility in transferring their shares, according to Daizy Chawla, a New Delhi-based senior partner at law firm Singh & Associates.

The law was altered some years back, allowing Tata Sons’s shareholders to approve a change to its legal status last year, overriding objections from Mistry’s son.

“Being a private company there is now restriction on the free transfer of shares by its shareholder and the transfer needs to be done with the approval of the board of directors,” Chawla said.

A New Delhi court last week heard arguments on a plea to put on hold government approval of Tata Sons’s conversion. The dispute may eventually wend its way to India’s top court since the losing party will have the right to appeal.

Tycoon Battles Tata to Unlock $17 Billion of His Wealth in India

The discord has battered a relationship that goes back almost a century. A Mistry company had financial links with Tata Sons from as early as 1927, though the family only began acquiring equity from the 1960s onward. Over time, purchases from Tata family members and a rights issue grew their holding to the present 18.4 percent.

Mistry inherited the stake from his father. The Shapoorji Pallonji group, founded in 1865, has helped build some of Tata Group’s automobile factories and steel mills and is also responsible for some of financial capital Mumbai’s most iconic structures including the Reserve Bank of India buildings and the Tower wing of Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

After earning a reputation for being reclusive, Mistry and his family were thrust into the spotlight in 2012, when his younger son was chosen to helm the Tata group. The bonhomie ended with his son’s ouster in October 2016, which triggered one of India’s worst corporate showdowns.

Still, it’s the exposure to Tata companies that’s helped bump up Pallonji Mistry’s fortune by $2.5 billion this year as investors piled into Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Asia’s largest software services provider. Mistry ranks 44th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and is
among the richest men living in India.

Article 75

Another point of contention that’s emerged as the Tata-Mistry relationship soured is article 75 of Tata Sons’s articles of association, which the board can use to force a shareholder to sell out. This provision is also being contested in court.

Combined with the decision to go private, the restriction puts Mistry in a tight spot. On the one hand, he can be forced to sell his stake while, on the other, he needs Tata Sons to sign off on a suitor he picks.

“Tata Sons can choose to preempt any stake sale by enforcing article 75 in its articles of association and forcing an existing shareholder to sell out,” said Sudip Mahapatra, a partner at law firm S&R Associates. “That’s what’s putting the Mistry family on a weak footing.”

--With assistance from Upmanyu Trivedi.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bhuma Shrivastava in Mumbai at bshrivastav1@bloomberg.net;P R Sanjai in Mumbai at psanjai@bloomberg.net;Pei Yi Mak in Hong Kong at pmak17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, ;K. Oanh Ha at oha3@bloomberg.net, Candice Zachariahs, Dave McCombs

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