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Son may fill in for Pallonji Mistry on Tata Sons board

Reeba Zachariah in Mumbai

Pallonji Mistry, the largest shareholder of Tata Sons, is planning to nominate his eldest son, Shapoor, to the board of the Tata group's holding company.

Mistry, who has an 18 per cent stake in Tata Sons, will retire from the Tata Sons board next year when he turns 75.

Though the retirement age at Tata Sons was lowered to 70 in 2000, sitting directors were allowed to continue till they attained 75.

Mistry, however, declined to comment on the issue. Mistry is also understood to have approached Ratan Tata on the issue.

In an interview to Business Standard, Tata said: "It's true that Mistry would like to do that. But there is no shareholder's agreement that says that this is to be done. And we'll deal with it when the time comes."

Some observers believe the 38-year-old Shapoor's appointment to the Tata Sons board can prove to be critical at the time of deciding on Tata's successor.

Tata's step-brother Noel, who is also Mistry's son-in-law, is already considered to be a serious contender for chairmanship.

If Shapoor is on the Tata Sons board, Noel would have a voice on the board. In legal terms, the board of a company decides on the next chairman.

When asked on whether Tata has any plans to see Noel on the Tata Sons board, that could lead to his chairmanship, Tata said: "There will be. In fact, in all our plans, and I say that very measuredly, people will like Noel and not because of Noel's last name."

Shapoor is already on the board of one of the Tata companies, Tata SSL. Cyrus Mistry, the younger son of Pallonji, is on two Tata boards: those of Tata Power and Tata Elxsi.

Several Tata stalwarts are scheduled to retire from the Tata Sons board over the next one year.

Apart from Pallonji, J K Setna, B G Deshmukh and Syamal Gupta are set to retire. This follows the retirement of Freddie Mehta and J E Taulaicar last month.

Even Tata Sons vice-chairman Noshir Soonawala will turn 70 in 2004. Tata said he had begun to look at how these vacancies could be filled.

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