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The Tata group is making headlines once again, albeit for the wrong reasons.

Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts and the Tata family patriarch, has asked Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to curtail losses in businesses such as Air India, Tata Digital and Tata Teleservices, which continue to consume cash generated by the group’s profitable companies. At the same time, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which owns 18.4% of Tata Sons, is seeking a listing of the holding company to address its own liquidity challenges.

In a separate battle, two Tata Trusts trustees – Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh – have made a complete U-turn and are now backing a Tata Sons listing after having earlier voted unanimously at Tata Trusts and Tata Sons board meetings to keep the company private.

It is a sense of déjà vu for the Tata group as it once again finds itself in the midst of a corporate conflict.

In 2016, the late Ratan Tata, half-brother of Noel Tata and then patriarch of the group, removed Cyrus Mistry citing persistent losses at Tata companies. The unceremonious ouster of Mistry and the subsequent removal of Nusli Wadia, a close confidant of J.R.D. Tata and predecessor to Ratan Tata, as director from three listed Tata companies further muddied the waters.

Wadia had helped Ratan Tata sideline several satraps within the group, giving him a freer hand in reshaping the conglomerate. Yet Wadia himself was later removed from the boards of Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals after he opposed Mistry’s removal by the Tata Sons board. The loss of support from the Bombay Dyeing chairman, often regarded as a corporate samurai, was a significant setback for the group.

The trusts are supreme

The relationship between Tata Trusts and Tata Sons is rooted in an ownership structure that has evolved over more than a century.

Tata Sons, incorporated in 1917, sits at the apex of the conglomerate as the principal holding and promoter company of the Tata group. In........

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