The Tata Group rejected a truce offer from billionaire conglomerate Pallonji Mistry that suggested trading the Mistry family’s stake for $ 24 billion worth of shares in Tata’s listed companies.
“It doesn’t make sense. This kind of relief cannot be given,” Tata’s lawyer Harish Salve said during a hearing before the Indian Supreme Court on Thursday. “I am opposed,” he said, arguing on behalf of the largest Indian conglomerate. .
The Shapoorji Pallonji group, led by Mistry, had informed the court in October that it estimated its 18.4% stake in Tata Sons Pvt. – the group’s main holding company – is worth more than ₹1.75 trillion ($ 23.7 billion). He was looking for prorated shares in all publicly traded Tata entities, cash or any other negotiable instrument instead. The Tata group earlier this week pegged this valuation at $ 11 billion, or less than half of the Mistrys demand.
Read also | Tata and Mistry face a valuation difference of $ 13 billion
Salve said that accepting Mistrys’ offer could cause the problem to spread from Tata Sons, which controls the empire from coffee to cars, to its listed companies in which the SP Group would have minority stakes.
Tata’s rejection of SP Group’s proposal threatens to stretch India’s largest corporate battle in recent history. The Mistry family announced in September their intention to break up a 70-year relationship, ending a four-year bitter feud that began with a 2016 boardroom coup at Tata Sons and led to the abrupt removal of Cyrus Mistry. as president of the Tata Group. Cyrus is the son of billionaire Mistry, 91, who controls the 155-year-old SP Group.
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