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N Chandrasekarans term as Tata Sons chairman renewed for another 5 years
The Board of Tata Sons today reappointed N Chandrasekaran, 58, as its Executive Chairman for the next five years in a board meeting held here.
Group patriarch, Ratan N Tata who was a special invitee to this meeting, expressed his satisfaction on the progress and performance of the Tata Group under the leadership of Chandrasekaran and recommended his term be renewed for a further five-year period.
The Board members also commended the performance of the Executive Chairman and unanimously approved the reappointment of Chandrasekaran, a statement by Tata Sons said. “It has been a privilege to lead the Tata Group for the last five years and I am delighted at the opportunity to lead the Tata Group for another five years, in its next phase,” Chandrasekaran, 58, said.
Chandrasekaran’s tenure in the last five years saw several mergers and acquisitions by the group in the steel, aviation and digital sectors and a complete exit from the cellular telephony industry. One of the first tasks of Chandra, as he is popularly known, was to get rid of Tata Teleservices which lost around Rs.60,000 crore in paying back bank loans apart from paying the AGR dues till date. Tatas sold the mobile phone business to Bharti Airtel while retaining debt and other liabilities of the company.
In one of the biggest acquisitions till date, Tata Steel acquired Bhushan Steel in May 2018 for Rs.35,200 crore after the company defaulted to bank loans and sent for the insolvency process. Tata Steel has managed to turn around the company which has been renamed as Tata Steel BSL. Tata Steel tried its best to sell its European business to ThyssenKrupp in the last two years but failed to close the deal after objections from several quarters.
In October last year, Tata Sons announced acquisition of Air India for Rs.18,000 crore from the Government of India. The Tata group already owns two airlines – Tata SIA Airlines and AirAsia India and the acquisition of Air India and its subsidiary, Air India Express will increase Tata’s combined market share to over 25 per cent of the airline industry. Last year, Chandra started his acquisition spree in the digital domain in his drive to launch a Super App which will sell from salt to airline tickets to the customers directly. In May 2021, Tata Sons announced that it has acquired Big Basket with media reports pegging the valuation of the company at Rs.9,500 crore. The acquisition will put Tata Sons in direct competition with American retail giant, Amazon and Wal-Mart owned Flipkart and Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail.
