Cyrus Mistry’s ouster: One more mess for Ratan Tata to sort out before his second exit
It was early May 2016, and David Cameron was still the prime minister of the UK. The Brexit vote was a month away and Cexit (former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry’s exit from the top job at Tatas) wasn’t even dreamt of. A six-member team, set up by the government, was paying a visit to Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant in the UK to do a due diligence study for a potential investor. The Tatas had declared their intention to sell the UK steel business, including the beleaguered plant.
One of the members of the team was Malay Mukherjee, former director of Arcelor-Mittal. On the way from London, Mukherjee tried to chat up with his chauffeur. It turned out the man was earlier an engineer at the melt shop of the steel plant. He had the choice of either being laid off or accepting the alternative job of driving cars for the company. There were surprises for Mukherjee that day. An Indian finance executive posted at the London office, accompanying Mukherjee on the trip, claimed he h ..