Tata Sons, the holding firm of the USD 275-billion-plus Tata conglomerate, has narrowed its seek for a successor to Chairman N Chandrasekaran to 3 distinguished company leaders — Tata Metal CEO and MD T V Narendran, Tata Sons Govt Director and Group CFO Saurabh Agrawal, and NSE MD and CEO Ashish Chauhan, folks accustomed to the matter stated.
Whereas Narendran has emerged because the frontrunner amongst inner candidates, Agrawal can be within the reckoning together with his investment-banking and capital-allocation expertise, whereas Chauhan, a veteran of India’s capital markets and one of many founding executives of the Nationwide Inventory Change, might change into the darkish horse, the folks stated.
The choice course of continues to be underway, and no remaining resolution has been taken. The Tata Sons board and the trusts that management the holding firm are anticipated to play a key function in selecting the following chairman.
Sources stated Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata has flagged the shortlisted candidates to high authorities leaders and a call is probably going as soon as the names are totally debated.
Tata Trusts and Tata Sons didn’t instantly reply to emailed requests for remark.
Chandrasekaran, who took over as Tata Sons chairman in 2017 and is at the moment serving his second five-year time period, introduced final month that he wouldn’t search reappointment when his tenure ends on February 20, 2027.
Whereas a proper course of to seek out his successor has been set in movement, no shortlist has been formally confirmed. Different names which have surfaced embrace Noel Tata himself, who might function interim chairman if the committee can’t conclude the method in time; Tata Sons’ Group Chief Digital Officer Aarthi Subramanian; Tata Motors CEO Shailesh Chandra; and Tata Energy CEO Praveer Sinha.
Narendran brings Tata pedigree and is taken into account the pure inner contender for the highest job, however his profession has been nearly totally inside Tata Metal, and he has comparatively much less expertise on the holding-company stage and in capital allocation.
Chauhan, however, brings a markedly completely different profile.
The NSE chief has deep expertise in know-how, capital markets, monetary companies and establishment constructing. He was among the many executives who helped set up the NSE within the Nineties and later served as MD and CEO of the Bombay Inventory Change earlier than returning to NSE as its chief in 2022.
An IIT Bombay graduate with a postgraduate administration diploma from IIM Calcutta, Chauhan has additionally labored at Reliance Industries and IDBI Financial institution. He’s presently steering a Rs 30,000-crore preliminary public providing (IPO) of NSE – the most important in Indian historical past thus far that can worth the inventory trade at about Rs 5 lakh crore and place it among the many 10 most precious Indian corporations by market capitalisation.
His candidature might provide the Tata Group an external-looking alternative with out bringing in a totally unknown face, folks accustomed to his profile stated. Chauhan understands capital markets and the technology-driven transformation of huge establishments, whereas his expertise straddles company administration, finance and know-how.
He’s additionally accustomed to India’s regulatory and coverage setting, an attribute that may very well be helpful because the group expands throughout extremely regulated sectors, the folks stated.
Individuals accustomed to Chauhan’s profession describe him as a company troubleshooter who tends to work quietly and methodically, dealing with tough conditions with out taking an aggressive public posture. He’s credited with steering NSE via a tough interval and making ready the trade for a possible itemizing, whereas at BSE he remodeled a broker-run, broker-operated trade right into a professionally managed company establishment.
His supporters level to his potential to deal with stress, take groups alongside and execute over lengthy intervals, in addition to his understanding of know-how, finance, telecom and the broader political financial system.
The Tata Sons chairmanship, nonetheless, is a very demanding function. Chauhan must transfer from the specialised and extremely regulated world of capital markets to overseeing a conglomerate spanning greater than 30 companies and greater than 1,000,000 staff.
NARENDRAN: THE TATA INSIDER
Narendran has emerged because the identify most persistently talked about in early discussions and stays the strongest inner working candidate.
A Tata Metal veteran since 1988, Narendran has spent greater than three a long time with the group and has led the steelmaker as CEO and MD for greater than a decade.
He has steered Tata Metal via risky international commodity cycles, heavy capital expenditure and the tough European operations which have been a problem for successive Tata Sons chairmen.
Narendran has overseen the corporate’s natural and inorganic enlargement and has held a number of distinguished business and institutional positions, together with chairman of the World Metal Affiliation and president of the Confederation of Indian Business.
He’s reported to be one of many two working CEOs — the opposite being Tata Energy’s Praveer Sinha — whom Noel Tata commonly consults.
For Narendran, the problem can be to translate his expertise of operating a big Tata working firm into managing a sprawling portfolio starting from IT and vehicles to aviation, client companies and new-age manufacturing.
AGRAWAL: THE FINANCE OPTION
Agrawal represents a distinctly finance- and strategy-oriented inner choice.
He joined Tata Sons in 2017 as Group CFO underneath Chandrasekaran and at the moment serves as Govt Director and Group CFO. His tasks prolong past these of a standard CFO, together with capital allocation, investment-management selections and portfolio optimisation throughout the group.
An IIT Roorkee graduate with a postgraduate administration diploma from IIM Calcutta, Agrawal started his profession in finance and funding banking in 1995.
He went on to move funding banking at DSP Merrill Lynch, served as head of company finance for India and South Asia at Customary Chartered and held a senior technique function on the Aditya Birla Group earlier than becoming a member of Tata Sons.
Agrawal had additionally suggested main Indian teams, together with the Tatas, on transactions earlier than becoming a member of the conglomerate, giving him a mixture of exterior financial-market expertise and intimate data of the Tata Group’s funding structure.
He has held board positions throughout the group, together with Tata Metal, Voltas and Tata Digital, and chairs companies together with Tata Capital, Tata Play, Tata AIA Life Insurance coverage, Tata AIG Common Insurance coverage, Tata Energy Renewable Vitality, Tata 1mg and BigBasket.
His candidacy turns into significantly related as Tata Sons faces a interval of heavy capital necessities and more and more complicated selections over the place to deploy capital throughout its companies.
