In 2022, Tata Pension Management featured Divinion Advisory Services, on the list of 473 ‘Tata Group and sponsor’ companies and dropped it the following year
Tata Pension Management said the disclosure of Divinion Advisory Services, an investment management company owned by the family members of a Tata Sons executive, as a Tata Group company in 2022 was done by mistake. The salt-to-power conglomerate had later removed the reference of the company in 2023, the Mint reported.
“Divinion Advisory Services is not part of the Tata Group nor sponsored by Tata Pension Fund. The company appeared under a disclosure of Tata Pension Fund, dated August 2022, which is erroneous, and we will be correcting the list at the earliest,” CEO of Tata Pension Fund, Kurian Jose, told the Mint.
The Mumbai-headquartered investment management firm was founded in 2021 by Shreemoyee Mukhopadhyay, daughter of Tata Sons’ company secretary Suprakash Mukhopadhyay. As per the Mint’s report, Mukhopadhyay shares a close bond with Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran.
Every year the salt-to-power conglomerate releases a list of companies under its umbrella and those firms that are sponsored by it. In 2022, Tata Pension Management featured Divinion on the list of 473 ‘Tata Group and sponsor’ companies. Tata Pension Management is supported by Tata Asset Management, to which Mukhopadhyay serves as a director.
A former Tata Group executive reportedly said that Mukhopadhyay had reached out to him to join his daughter’s wealth management firm or to invest with it. This might constitute as a breach of the Tata Code of Conduct, which mentions that a conflict of interest comes into picture when a Tata Group employee uses his influence and association with the conglomerate to avail transaction –related benefits for themselves personally or for their family members.
The holding company of the power-to-port conglomerate reportedly said it has no business transactions with the investment management firm owned by Mukhopadhyay’s daughter.
“We would like to clarify that there has been no business relationship between any of the Tata group companies and Divinion Advisory Services,” the Mint reported, citing a Tata Sons spokesperson. No company of the salt-to-power conglomerate is a sponsor of Divinion Advisory Services, the spokesperson added.
Shreemoyee stepped down as CEO in June 2023 and consequently appointed Hormuz Bulsara as CEO in August the same year. Bulsara served as operating officer of Tata Asset Management. Prior to this, in August 2022, S Mahalingam, an ex-CFO of Tata Consultancy Services joined Divinion’s board, and Adil Burjor Busha, a former director with Tata Pension Management, was appointed as CFO of the wealth management fund.