Cyrus Mistry claims 78% retail investors opposed his removal

A reported 78% of the votes cast by retail investors was against the resolution to remove me, Cyrus Mistry wrote in a letter.

Mumbai, Dec 14: Cyrus Mistry on Wednesday claimed support of 78 per cent of public shareholders against his ouster from Tata Group's crown jewel Tata Consultancy Services, bulk of which may have come from his own group firms.

According to regulatory filing by TCS, less than 18 per cent of the 8.78 crore retail or public shareholders participated in the voting on a resolution moved by promoter Tata Sons seeking his ouster from the company board.

Of the 1.55 crore shares polled, 1.21 crore voted against the resolution while 34.24 lakh supported his removal. This 78 per cent vote by public shareholders, Mistry said, was "a strong signal from minority shareholders that the need for governance reform must not go unheeded."

"A reported 78% of the votes cast by retail investors was against the resolution to remove me," he wrote in a letter to shareholders.

However, Mistry and his Shapoorji Pallonji Group together hold 1.14 crore shares in the TCS and presuming they would have voted against the resolution, non-affiliated public shareholders opposing the resolution was only 17 per cent or 6.94 lakh.

Without considering Mistry and SP Group's vote, the vote for the resolution was 83 per cent. According to the latest annual report of TCS, Mistry held 41.63 lakh shares or 0.21 per cent shares of the company as on March 31, 2016.

Considering he would have voted against the resolution brought by Tata Sons, less than half of the negative votes for the resolution may be his own.

According to the regulatory filing, all of the 144.48 crore promoter-held shares, constituting 73.32 per cent of the total shareholding, voted for the resolution to remove him.

Of the 43.79 crore institutional holding, 56.69 per cent participated in the poll, with 14.25 crore favouring Mistry's removal and 10.55 crore being against the resolution.

PTI