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Tata Sons board set to approve Chandrasekaran’s third term as chairman: Reports
Chandrasekaran tipped for third term as Tata Group seeks steady hand at the helm
MUMBAI: The Tata Sons board is gearing up for a landmark meeting on February 24, with the spotlight on the re-appointment of N. Chandrasekaran as chairman. According to media reports, the board will consider several proposals, but the star item is Chandrasekaran’s potential third term, signalling continuity at the top of India’s most storied business group.
Chandrasekaran, popularly known as Chandra, has been at the helm of Tata Sons since January 2017. His current tenure concludes in February 2027, and the proposal on the table is for a five-year extension. The proposal comes from Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts, and Venu Srinivasan, vice chairman of Tata Trusts, with board approval required to make it official.
Chandra’s journey with the Tata Group is a remarkable rise through the ranks. He started as an intern at Tata Consultancy Services, rose to chief operating officer in 2007, and became CEO in 2009 at the age of 46. He joined the Tata Sons board in 2016 and has been steering the group’s flagship companies ever since, holding chairmanships at Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Air India, Indian Hotels Company, and TCS itself.
A close aide of the late Ratan Tata, Chandrasekaran is widely seen as a steady hand capable of guiding the conglomerate through change while maintaining its long-standing ethos. Extending his term would reflect the Tata Trusts’ confidence in his strategic vision and the desire for stability at the group’s top echelons.
The board meeting on February 24 is expected to formalise the decision, marking another chapter in the Tata Group’s enduring story of leadership continuity and business ambition.
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UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
