Ratan Tata searches for successor

Ratan Tata (71), chairman of the Tata Group, is planning to call it a day. India’s second largest conglomerate — after Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries — is scouting for a successor. HT Correspondent reports.

Ratan Tata (71), chairman of the Tata Group, is planning to call it a day. India’s second largest conglomerate — after Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries — is scouting for a successor.

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“We are in the process of formalising a successor to me,” said Tata in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, published on Wednesday.

Tata has been chairman of the $71 billion (Rs 325,000 crore) group since 1991, when he was anointed successor by his uncle, the late JRD Tata.

“It would be easier if the candidate were an Indian national,” he said. “But now that 65 per cent of our revenues come from overseas, it could also be an expatriate sitting in that position with justification now.”

Stepping into Tata’s shoes is not going to easy — under him, the group’s turnover jumped four-fold in seven years.