Mistry richest TCS board member

If TCS is the crown jewel of the $83-billion diversified Tata Group, then the group's chairman-in-waiting Cyrus Mistry is its richest board member.

Mistry, who recently came on the board of the Rs 41,000-crore (Rs 410-billion) flagship IT company of the group, holds TCS shares worth around Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion). This disclosure was made by the company, on April 2, when the appointment was announced.

At that time, Mistry and his dependants held a total of 4.16 million shares, worth Rs 484 crore (Rs 4.84 billion) at on Monday's closing price of Rs 1,162.50 a share on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In other words, he owns 0.21 per cent of the company.

Mistry alone owns more than double the shares that all his Tata group colleagues on the board together hold in the company.

According to the TCS annual report 2011, Mistry's holding in the company is higher than that of TCS chairman Ratan Tata, who holds around 1.5 million shares.

Other board members who hold shares in the company include vice-chairman S Ramadorai, CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran and CFO S Mahalingam.

"Mr Cyrus Mistry has not bought shares of TCS on April 2, 2012.

"He has disclosed his shareholding in TCS as on the date of his appointment i.e. April 2, 2012.

"On appointment of a director in a company, Form B needs to be filed with the stock exchanges as required under Regulation 13 of the Sebi (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations.

"In this regard, Form B was filed giving details of Mr Mistry's holding in TCS as on his date of appointment," said a TCS spokesperson.

With a presence in 42 countries, TCS has 226,000-plus employees.

Image: Cyrus Mistry