Mumbai: The board of directors of Tata Sons Ltd on Friday denied allegations by the Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP) that it deliberately kept an ‘urgent request’ to the Supreme Court on hold.
On September 15, the SP Group sent a notice for damages to the Tata Sons board members, for blocking the Mistry family’s fundraising against the Tata Sons actions.
The SP Group, through its two investment firms, Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investments, has an 18.4% stake in Tata Sons. He has been committing these actions to lenders and investors to raise funds. The SP Group has faced difficulties paying its debt and urgently needs funds in the pandemic, as its mainstay is real estate and infrastructure.
On September 5, Tata Sons had filed an “urgent” petition with the Supreme Court to prevent SP Group’s promoters from raising capital by pledging their shares in Tata Sons. Tata Sons argued that any commitment will amount to the transfer of shares and that according to the company’s bylaws (AoA), the Tata Sons board has the first right to buy the shares.
The SP Group, in its response on September 7, said that the AoA prevents the transfer of shares and not the creation of liens. He said that the Tata Sons move was aimed at causing “irreparable harm” to SP Group at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The bad faith motive for Tatas’ move was even more evident by the fact that Tatas kept its application on hold, supposedly to cure defects, despite filing an urgent petition with the Supreme Court,” said Grupo SP in a legal notice sent to Tata. Board of children.
“The sequence of events is obviously directed to a single objective, to jeopardize the financial closure of our client (SP Group) to handle the conditions of extreme illiquidity that are being met in these times of pandemic,” he said.
Tata Sons in his response on Friday said that “the allegation that the inclusion of the application was deliberately delayed in some way is false and unfortunate and has been made without a proper investigation in the court record.” He said the urgent request from Tata Sons raises real concerns that SP The group will take steps to “thwart legal processes.” Mint has reviewed a copy of the answer.
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