Tata Sons Board Clears FY26 Accounts, Skips Talks on Listing and Chandra’s Future

The board of Tata Sons on Friday approved annual accounts and dividend for FY26, but discussions around the company’s possible listing and chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran’s future tenure did not come up during the meeting, according to reports.

The nearly four-hour meeting was held at Bombay House in Mumbai and attended by all six board members, including Noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan.

According to The New Indian Express, “the four-hour-long meeting did not discuss any of the key issues including a third term for Chandra, or the fraught issue of listing Tata Sons and the mounting losses at some of the key unlisted companies like Air India and Tata Digital.”

Leadership and Tata Sons Listing Issue

Chandrasekaran, who has led Tata Sons since 2017, is widely expected to be considered for another term when his current tenure ends in February 2027. Reports indicate that discussions on his third term did not progress at the February 24 board meeting of Tata Sons.

The February 24 meeting had earlier been linked in reports to discussions on extending his tenure, along with concerns raised within the Tata ecosystem over the performance of certain group businesses, including Air India and other new-age ventures.

The listing issue also remains unresolved. In September 2022, the Reserve Bank of India classified Tata Sons as an upper-layer Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC-UL), which typically requires a listing by September 2025.

However, in 2025, Tata Sons reportedly surrendered its Core Investment Company (CIC) registration and sought exemption from the listing requirement. A final decision from the regulator is still awaited.

Concerns Over Loss-Making Businesses

The meeting took place amid continued scrutiny of losses at several Tata Group companies. Air India recorded its highest-ever loss after being reacquired by the Tatas in January 2022. The airline reported a net loss of about ₹10,859 crore in FY25, according to Tata Sons’ annual report.

For FY26, Air India’s losses are projected to widen significantly, with several reports estimating the figure could reach nearly ₹28,000 crore. The expected rise is largely linked to aircraft upgrade expenses, integration-related costs and the airline’s ongoing restructuring exercise.

Concerns within the group are not restricted to the aviation business alone. Other relatively new Tata ventures including Tata Digital, Tata Electronics and Tata Projects reported losses of ₹4,610 crore, ₹70 crore and ₹697 crore, respectively.

Among them, Tata Digital has continued to consume large amounts of capital as the group aggressively expands its presence in online retail and digital services through platforms such as Tata Neu and BigBasket.

Reports said Tata Trusts has been closely reviewing the financial performance of these businesses.