Independent director Nusli Wadia removed from Tata Steel board

The move comes after ousted Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry resigned from all companies listed under the group.

New Delhi, Dec 22: Tata Steel on Thursday said its independent director Nusli Wadia has been removed from the company's board, with 90.8 per cent of shareholders present at yesterday's EGM voting in favour of his ouster. In a regulatory filing, the company said out of its total shares of 97.12 crore, 62.54 crore votes were polled, which translate into 64.4 per cent.

"Total vote in favour of the resolution was 56.79 crore, i.e. 90.80 per cent, and total vote against the motion was 5.75 crore, i.e. 9.20 per cent," it said. "The motion (was) carried in favour of the resolution with overwhelming majority way beyond a special resolution hurdle of 75 per cent, even though this motion was an ordinary resolution requiring simple majority," the company added.

The promoter and promoter firms held 30.45 crore shares in the company, of which 29.59 crore voted. It further said the total number of votes polled by non-promoter shareholders was 32.95 crore, of which 27.20 crore, that is 82.5 per cent, was in favour of the resolution. The total number of votes polled against the proposal was 5.75 crore, accounting for 17.5 per cent of non-promoters.

The company claimed that even if the promoter votes were excluded, the voting result showed an overwhelming majority (3/4th) in favour of the resolution. Institutional investors held a total of 42.64 crore shares out of which 31.99 crore, which is 75 per cent, were polled. As much as 26.39 crore of institutional shares, which is 82.5 per cent, voted in favour of Wadia's removal, Tata Steel said. The share of institutional shares which polled against the resolution was 5.60 crore, that is 17.5 per cent.

As for retail shareholders, the company said that out of a total of 24.02 crore shares, 96.14 lakh voted, with 81.21 lakh (84.4 per cent) in favour and 15 lakh (15.6 per cent) against. "Both institutional and retail voted on a similar pattern with significant majority well beyond the 3/4th majority mark in all categories," the company said. Wadia had stayed away from yesterday's EGM, saying it was stage-managed.

Last week, he filed a Rs 3,000-crore defamation suit against Ratan Tata, Tata Sons and some of its directors. He flied the case in the Bombay High Court following the move by Tata Sons to remove him from the board of the three companies. Wadia had denied allegations by Tata Sons that he was acting in concert with ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry.

Besides, he has refuted claims that he was "galvanising" independent directors and mobilising opinion, forcing disruptions and issuing statements" which were contrary to the interest of the companies as "totally baseless and completely unsubstantiated".

PTI