India's Tata Sons on Monday dumped Cyrus Misty as its chairman in a surprise announcement to reporters, almost four years after his appointment as the first CEO of the conglomerate from outside the Tata family.

Tata Sons is the holding company of the sprawling Tata Group, which spans more than 100 companies in as many countries.

The conglomerate said industrialist and former chief Ratan Tata (pictured above), aged 78, had been appointed interim chairman until a successor was found. It added the search was likely to take four months.

Emerging problems

Tata Group is arguably India's most famous family enterprise. Its companies include one of the nation's largest IT firms, Tata Consultancy Services, the biggest vehicle maker in India, Tata Motors, and a ritzy hotel chain featuring Mumbai's Taj Mahal palace hotel.

A string of deals since the turn of the millennium saw the group snap up a number of famous names including Tetley Tea, luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and steelmaker Corus.

But the group's revenue slipped by 4.6 percent for the financial year ending March to about $103 billion (94.5 billion euros) as business was hurt by global economic uncertainty, a crash in commodity prices and volatility in currencies.

Also, the group has been trying for a long time to sell its loss-making British steel assets.

hg/uhe (AFP, Reuters)