Who will control the $30 billion Shapoorji Pallonji Group after Cyrus Mistry’s death?
Cyrus Mistry, the youngest of its scions, died in a tragic car accident. This is a double loss to the multibillion-dollar Shapoorji Pallonji Group. It also lost its patriarch in June. The group’s diversified holdings of nearly $30 billion include 18.6% of Tata Group’s $130 billion. It was founded in 1865 by Pallonji Mistry, who was Cyrus’ great-grandfather.
The Bloomberg billionaire index shows that the SP Group’s net worth is approximately $30 billion by 2022. In October 2016, Cyrus Mistry, the chairman of the SP Group, was ousted by the Tata Group in a board coup. This sparked the largest corporate feud in India Inc history.
Under Cyrus’ leadership, the Tata Group (top-20 group companies listed on the stock exchange) grew at 12.5% while debt grew at a slower 9.98% rate, from 1.89 crores to 2.29 crore.
However, net profit grew at a 42.3% CAGR during this period, which indicates that the company had much more efficient operations under his leadership. The company’s total revenue was more than $100 billion. This is near twice the amount it had been during his tenure.
Cyrus, 54, died instantly on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway. He was not involved with the operation of the family business and had entrusted it to his elder brother Shapoor Mistry. The group made continuous management changes and inducted Shapoor’s son Pallon into the board of its holding company. Tanya was responsible for the group’s social responsibility activities.
Pallon now serves on the apex board that makes long-term strategic and impactful decisions. The group has been under Shapoor Pallonji, his elder brother and Pallonji’s eldest son, since 2012 when Pallonji announced his retirement.
Cyrus, who was appointed chairman of Tata Sons, withdrew from the family business completely “to ensure there is no conflict between interests with Tata group”, and also prohibited his family companies to enter into any business with Tata entities, unless open competitive bidding.
In early 2003, the Mistry family lost their Indian citizenship and became Irish citizens. This was due to Cyrus’ mother Patsy Perin Dubash being from Dublin and their citizenship being modified “on the basis Shapoorji Palonji Mistry marrying to an Irish citizen.”
