India’s Tata Steel Ltd on Friday removed Cyrus Mistry as chairman of its board, as uncertainty grows over the fate of its huge loss-making British assets.
The move comes after Mistry was unceremoniously fired last month as chairman of Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of India’s most famous family conglomerate — the US$103 billion steel-to-salt Tata Group.
Tata Steel said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange that Om Prakesh Bhatt, an independent director on the board, would replace Mistry until the outcome of an extraordinary general meeting on Dec. 21.
The decision to remove Mistry with immediate effect was taken by “majority consent” at a meeting of the board of directors in Mumbai, India, on Friday.
Tata Steel has been considering several bids for its British assets since putting them up for sale in March, citing a global oversupply of steel, cheap imports into Europe, high costs and currency volatility.
The British government has been racing to help find a buyer for Tata Steel’s business, which had accounted for about 16,000 jobs, many of them at the Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, the country’s biggest steel plant.
Analysts have said patriarch Ratan Tata, who has taken interim charge of the family business, was saddened by the battering his company’s reputation was taking in Britain over the uncertainty surrounding its steel assets.
A change in leadership could mean that the company is now willing to commit to its steel business in Britain, they said.
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