Mumbai: Noel Tata was on Friday appointed to the board of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, as a nominee of Tata Trusts, of which he was appointed chairman last month following the death of Ratan Tata. An online resolution to this effect was passed at a virtual Tata Sons meeting held on Diwali eve, said people with knowledge of the matter. Notably, Noel Tata remains on the boards of other Tata Group companies. He will be the first member of the Tata family since 2011 to serve on the boards of both the Tata Trusts and Tata Sons simultaneously. Tata Trusts holds a 66% stake in Tata Sons, making it the largest shareholder.With Noel Tata’s inclusion, there are now three Tata Trusts nominee directors on the Tata Sons board, alongside TVS chairman emeritus Venu Srinivasan and former defence ministry bureaucrat Vijay Singh. Noel Tata, Singh, Srinivasan and Mehli Mistry currently form the executive committee governing Tata Trusts.
Tata Sons did not comment.
According to Tata Sons’ Articles of Association (AoA), the Trusts can nominate one-third of the board’s directors. Currently, the Tata Sons board consists of nine directors—two executive directors including chairman N Chandrasekaran, three non-executive directors including Noel Tata, Srinivasan and Singh, and four independent directors.
Noel Tata met Chandrasekaran after his appointment, setting the tone for a “healthy working relationship” between the two, according to insiders. Noel Tata currently serves as non-executive director and chairperson of Tata Investment Corp., Trent and Voltas, while also holding the position of vice chairperson and non-executive director at Titan and Tata Steel.
Ratan Tata was chairman of Tata Trusts and chairman emeritus of Tata Sons. In 2022, the Tata Sons board amended its AoA to ensure that the same person didn’t head both.
Noel Tata, 67, quit his executive roles at group companies at 65 — the age at which the group mandates such retirement. Executives are also required to give up all board positions at 70. However, there is no retirement age for a trustee or chairperson. Experts close to the conglomerate said there are no legal or contractual restrictions on Noel Tata continuing to chair group companies since it is a nonexecutive role.
Noel Tata became chairman of Trent, the group’s retail division, in April 2014, succeeding FH Kavarana. Under his leadership, the retail chain’s revenue skyrocketed by 430%, from Rs 2,333 crore in FY14 to Rs 12,375 crore in FY24, swinging from a loss of Rs 19 crore to a profit of Rs 1,477 crore.
In August 2017, Noel Tata took over as chairman of Voltas. Since then, the company’s revenue doubled from Rs 6,404 crore in FY17 to Rs 12,481 crore in FY24. The stock has risen nearly 300% since August 2017. Tata Investment Corp., the other company where Noel Tata serves as chairman, is primarily engaged in investing in listed and unlisted equity shares. Over the past five years, the company’s stock has delivered a 705% return, significantly outperforming the Nifty, which returned 102% during the same period.
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