The Shapoorji Pallonji group of companies built some of Mumbai's most recognisable buildings, including the Hong Kong Bank, Grindlays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Reserve Bank of India. The consortium companies also built the Famous Studios at Mahalaxmi.
Digital Desk: Pallonji Mistry, a billionaire philanthropist, passed away at his home this morning. He was 93.
His wife Patsy, daughters Laila Rustom Jehangir and Aloo Noel Tata, sons Shapoor Mistry and Cyrus Mistry, and grandchildren survive him. He went away quietly.
Mistry is survived by his sons Shapoor and Cyrus, as well as a daughter named Aloo. His family has operated a sizable construction company known as the Shapoorji Pallonji Group for more than 150 years. Mistry has long-standing health issues, according to organisation authorities.
Because of his indirect influence on Tata Group issues, Mistry was regarded as the "phantom of Bombay House" and maintained a low profile constantly.
In the 1990s, Mistry served as chairman of ACC for a brief period before leaving the company soon after the Tata group left the industry. Till 2004, Mistry served as a director on the board of Tata Sons.
Mistry, an Irish citizen, is described by group leaders as a straightforward individual who rarely went to social gatherings.
Ratan Tata, the father of the Tata organisation, and Pallonji had a cordial relationship. Pallonji backed Ratan Tata in all of his actions, including the acquisition of numerous enterprises abroad and the sale of a number of businesses.
A few years ago, Mistry also evenly divided his sons' stakes in his company and Tata Sons.
In 2012, Cyrus, his younger son, was appointed chairman of Tata Sons. After Cyrus and Ratan Tata had a falling out, the board later fired Cyrus from his position as chairman.
The Mistry family's ownership of a significant portion of Tata Sons, the Tata group's holding company, is a major contributor to their fortune. Mistry's wealth has soared by several billion dollars over the past five years as a result of the strong growth in Tata Group stock.
The Shapoorji Pallonji group of companies built some of Mumbai's most recognisable buildings, including the Hong Kong Bank, Grindlays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Reserve Bank of India. The consortium companies also built the Famous Studios at Mahalaxmi.
However, the organisation ran out of a plain one-story building in Colaba, South Mumbai, adhering to the family's custom of avoiding publicity.
It's interesting to note that Pallonji's father produced the biggest Hindi film blockbuster of its era, Mughal-e-Azam (1960), which the family rereleased after it was digitally coloured in 2004. After that, the family stopped making investments in the film industry.
Mistry, who was born in 1929, completed his education in Mumbai, where he also attended college. He began working for his father's company, Shapoorji Pallonji & Company Ltd., when he was just 18 years old, in 1947.
He soon picked up the business's nuances and saw its many ups and downs as it developed over time in India. When his father passed away in 1975, he assumed control of the business.
Pallonji, unlike his father, was a savvy businessman who was quick to recognise new opportunities that India's industrialization and expanding economy presented. His father, on the other hand, concentrated primarily on construction and had expanded the company significantly over the several decades he was in charge.
Pallonji had the insight and tenacity to travel overseas in the late 1960s. Petrodollars were fueling a boom in Middle Eastern construction, and under Pallonji's direction, the business submitted a proposal and won the contract to build the Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said Palace in Muscat.
In addition to making Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) the first Indian construction business to have completed a project abroad when Sultan opened his Muscat Palace for guests in 1975, the Palace also became a showcase of Indian capabilities to the rest of the globe. It was praised as a feat of construction.
The Muscat Palace served as a platform of confidence and opportunity for other Indian businesses to expand abroad as well as for the Indian government to assess the potential and policies of the country.
The National Assembly of Gambia, the Presidential Office of Ghana, and the Ebene IT Park in Mauritius are just a few of the notable projects SP has completed in Africa. This also gave SP a platform from which to expand its footprint in the Middle East and into the continent. All of these initiatives have received praise and recognition on a global scale while also employing and exposing Indian labourers and engineers.
In the latter decades of the twentieth century, the corporation expanded significantly under Pallonji's chairmanship. Additionally, he added other businesses to the SP Group by acquiring strategic shares in them, including Sterling & Wilson, United Motors, Forbes Gokak, and Afcons Infrastructure.
He served on the boards of numerous organisations over the years, including Tata, the Associated Cement Companies Ltd., the W H Brady Group of Companies, the Union Bank of India, and the W H Brady Group of Companies.
Pallonji Mistry became the single-largest shareholder in Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, with a stake of 18.4% outside of the charity trusts.
Pallonji turned the leadership of Shapoorji Pallonji & Business Pvt Ltd, the operating and holding company of the SP Group, over to his elder son Shapoor Mistry at the beginning of 2012.
Pallonji received the Padma Bhushan in 2016 from the President of India in honour of his immense contributions to Indian industry and nation-building over the course of six decades.
In 2006, Pallonji established a senior living facility at the B D Petit Parsee General Hospital in Mumbai with the help of his wife Patsy.
Over the years, his quiet and understated personal giving has been significant. Additionally, the SP Group of Companies actively supports CSR initiatives in India that focus on preserving the environment, social inclusion, water access, nutrition, and skills development.
The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, founded in 1865 and now employing 70,000 people globally, marked its 150th anniversary in 2015.
Mumbai will host Mistry's funeral tomorrow at 11 a.m.
Leave A Comment