Noel Tata seeks review of Tata Sons restructuring plan to avoid listing

Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata has urged the Tata Sons board to review a restructuring proposal that could help avoid listing the holding company. He also questioned the RBI’s classification of Tata Sons as an upper-layer NBFC and raised concerns over philanthropic priorities

Mumbai: Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata has urged the Tata Sons board to review a restructuring proposal to avoid a stock market listing of the holding company.

Speaking recently at Republic TV event here, Noel said that he remains hopeful that the Reserve Bank of India will reconsider its decision to classify Tata Sons as an upper-layer non-banking financial company.

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Listing Tata Sons would fundamentally change the way the Tata group has operated for decades and could create a conflict between investor expectations for profits and the philanthropic objectives of Tata Trusts, according to him. Tata Trusts — which owns 66 per cent of Tata Sons — has proposed merging Tata Electronics Systems Solutions and Tata Consulting Engineers with Tata Sons.

The decision would give Tata Sons its own operations and revenue, potentially allowing it to avoid classification as an NBFC or core investment company. Tata Sons was placed on the RBI’s upper-layer NBFC list in September 2022 and was given three years to list.

The company subsequently cleared its debt and applied in 2024 to surrender its core investment company status and remain private. However, the central bank rejected the application earlier this month and asked the company to comply with the applicable norms.

Noel Tata was the lone dissenting voice when the Tata Sons board voted earlier in September to prepare for a listing and to give Chairman N Chandrasekaran a fresh five-year term.

Also, he described the board’s decision to reappoint Chandrasekaran as chairman as illegal. According to him, Tata Sons has historically supported group companies during difficult periods. It was uncertain whether outside shareholders would back similar investments, he said.

Apart from that, he also highlighted education, healthcare and jobs as key areas for Tata Trusts’ philanthropic work and said there was a need to bridge the gap between university education and industry requirements.