Industrialist and a well-respected name in the India Inc Ajay Piramal has got a second three-year term as director on the board of Tata Sons, a principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Tata Sons, under the chairmanship of N Chandrasekaran, is currently focussed on scaling up the existing businesses, providing funding support, untangling the complex structure and also looking at new growth areas.
Ajay Piramal of $10 billion-plus Piramal Enterprises will now continue as independent director at the holding company until August 2022. Piramal, who started off with family's textile business and built a world-class pharma business through acquisitions and later expanding it to real estate and financial services, is a good asset for Tata Sons board.
The other members of Tata Sons board are global strategist Farida Khambatta, Jaguar Land Rover global CEO Ralf Sheth, Titan MD Bhaskar Bhat, former Unilever Group COO Harish Manwani and Tata Sons CFO Saurabh Agrawal. Venu Srinivasan's name still figures in the list of directors, but it is not known whether his term has been extended.
Three years ago, Tata Sons had inducted the 64-year old Piramal along with TVS Motor chairman Venu Srinivasan as independent directors. Later as the board battle between Tata Trusts and Cyrus Mistry came out in the open, the appointments of Piramal and Srinivasan months before were seen as a move to consolidate the grip of Tata Trusts over the holding company.
Piramal enjoys goodwill in the industry. His son Anand Piramal recently married Mukesh Ambani's daughter Isha Ambani. Few years ago, Piramal stitched a surprise deal with Shriram Group which he now plans to exit. While he got a good deal in merger with IDFC Bank, but the talks fell on valuation differences. Piramal is currently busy creating liquidity for its financial services and real estate business as money market conditions are still tight even after the one-year since IL&FS debacle.
Also read: LIC, IFC come to the aid of Ajay Piramal's financial services business