Tata Offers to Buy Out Mistry Family Stake in Shares Dispute

Tata Group, India’s biggest conglomerate, said it’s open to buying out the stake held by its largest minority shareholder -- the billionaire Mistry family -- as part of a proposal to help end a years-long legal dispute between the two parties.

A lawyer representing Tata Sons Pvt. informed the Suprem Court Tuesday of the offer to purchase the 18% stake owned by the cash-strapped Shapoorji Pallonji Group if the latter needed to raise money for paying maturing debt. The SP Group instead wants to borrow funds using the shares as collateral, a move Tata considers as potentially risky because the securities may end up falling in the hands of unfriendly investors.

The nation’s top court on Tuesday barred the Mistry group from pledging or selling any Tata shares until Oct. 28, when it starts hearing final arguments in the case.

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, controlled by tycoon Pallonji Mistry and his family, owns about 18% of closely held Tata Sons, the holding company of the $113 billion software-to-cars Tata empire. Mistry’s son, Cyrus, has been locked in a bitter legal fight with Tata since he was ousted as chairman of Tata Sons in a 2016 boardroom coup.