Spotlight back on Shapoorji Pallonji Group
NEW DELHI: Cyrus Mistry’s removal has put the spotlight on the single-largest shareholder in Tata Sons— the Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SPG).
Founded in 1865 as Littlewood Pallonji, the group’s first project was construction of pavements in Mumbai. Since then, it has grown into a $4.2-billion company. Pallonji Mistry is the current chairman of the group, and has two sons — Cyrus and Shapoor.
The group’s association with Tatas began in 1935, when Shapoorji Pallonji bought a company called FE Dinshaw and Co, which had 12.5% stake in Tata Sons. Over the years, the stake increased. At present, SPG holds 9.2% stake each in Tata Sons through Sterling Investment Corp and Cyrus Investments. In his personal capacity Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry holds 0.03%. This makes SPG the largest shareholder in Tata Sons with 18.43% stake outside Tata Trusts (52%).
The fifth-richest Indian according to Forbes, Pallonji Mistry, has for long held the title of “The Phantom of Bombay House” for his influence at the Tatas’ storied colonial headquarters in south Mumbai. He gave up his seat on Tata Sons board in 2006 to make room for Cyrus.
The SPG group is involved in businesses ranging from textiles to real estate, hospitality to busi ness automation. Major compa nies include Shapoorji Pallonj Engineering and Construction Afcons Infrastructure, Forbes Textiles, Gokak Textiles, Eureka Forbes, Forbes and Co, SP Con struction Materials Group, SP Real Estate and Next Gen etc.
Pallonji Mistry was also one of the financer of ‘Mughal-e-azam’ the 1960 historical drama directed by K Asif. But the ardu ous process of making this film which took almost over 12 years perhaps put the group off cinema production.