Tata Group Offers to Buy Mistry Family Stake, SC Orders Status Quo on Share Pledges

The Tata Group on Tuesday said it is open to buying out the stake held by its largest minority shareholder, the billionaire Mistry family, as part of a proposal to help end a years-long legal dispute between the two parties.

A lawyer representing Tata Sons Pvt informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday of the offer to purchase the 18% stake owned by the cash-strapped Shapoorji Pallonji Group if the latter needed to raise money for paying maturing debt. The SP Group instead wants to borrow funds using the shares as collateral, a move Tata considers as potentially risky because the securities may end up falling in the hands of unfriendly investors.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court restrained till October 28 the Shapoorji Pallonji group and Cyrus Mistry from pledging or transferring their shares in Tata Sons Pvt Ltd (TSPL). A bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian directed Tata Sons and the SP Group not to take any further action on the shares which have already been pledged till October 28, the next date of hearing.