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4 high-fliers set to grace Tata Industries' board
Raghu Mohan
MUMBAI, Dec 29: The Tata group is all set to bolster the board of Tata Industries by inducting four new directors. The shortlisted candidates include Titan Industries' managing director Xerxes Desai, Indian Hotels' managing director R Krishna Kumar, Telco's executive director VM Rawal and Tata Finance chief executive Dilip Pendse.A formal decision on the new appointees to the Tata Industries' board will be announced by the Tatas in a short while. "Xerxes Desai, Krishna Kumar, Rawal and Pendse will be the most likely ones to find a place on the board of Tata Industries", said sources close to the Tata group. Another candidate, say sources, who was tipped for a place on the Tata Industries board, was Vijay K Gupta (49), former head of the Tata group's telecom venture. Gupta, though, has recently left the Tata group and joined as the Reliance group's basic services' chief executive and managing director. As many as seven directors -- Nani A Palkhivala, Darbari S Seth, SA Sabavala, KM Chinnappa, SR
Vakil, AH Tobaccowala and FC Kohli -- had stepped down from the board of Tata Industries on December 2 this year to make room for a younger generation. The four shortlisted candidates will, on formal appointment to the Tata Industries board, help chisel a modern profile for the Tata group. Their most crucial task will be to oversee the execution of the McKinsey report on the restructuring of the group. A fax sent to Tata Sons by The Financial Express on the shortlisting of names did not elicit a written response. A Tata Sons' spokesperson said: "We will not confirm or deny anything...it is early days yet". Tata Industries is a critical promoter company of the group because it is initiating a number of pathbreaking projects in new areas. It holds stakes in most information technology subsidiaries of the Tata group (excluding TCS) apart from the group companies in oil drilling and other core sector areas. To augment funds for these projects, Tata Industries inducted Jardine Matheson of Hongkong as a 20 per
cent equity partner nearly two years back. The Tata group, through the new appointments, will reaffirm support for two executives who have been in the news of late. The group scotched rumours last week that Xerxes Desai would move from Titan to Tata Industries, and has stood solidly by Krishna Kumar as he battled a controversy on alleged links with terrorist groups with regard to Tata Tea, of which he was managing director till recently. It appears Desai, as well as the others, will hold the directorial posts in Tata Industries concurrent to their executive posts in various Tata concerns.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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