Cyrus Mistry's sons join Shapoorji Pallonji Group, may get executive roles soon

Firoz Mistry, 26, and Zahan Mistry, 24, sons of the late Cyrus Mistry have formally joined the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group and will be guided by top group professionals, executives close to the development said. SP Group chairman and Cyrus's older brother Shapoor has taken his nephews under his wing to personally mentor them, it is learnt.

Cyrus Mistry, former Tata Sons chairman, died in a car accident on September 4.

Firoz and Zahan will work for about 18 months in various group businesses and verticals before taking on executive roles, said the people cited above. Both recently returned to India - Firoz studied at Yale and Zahan at University of Warwick.


"These are early days yet," said one of the persons cited above. "It's just been a month since they have joined. Every senior official in the SP Group will support and mentor them to take their father's legacy forward."

The SP Group was hit hard by Cyrus's death but will work towards building a resilient business and taking his ideals forward, said another person aware of the development.

Shapoor's son Pallon, who had joined the group about five years ago, is on the board of holding company Shapoor Pallonji & Co (SPCPL). He is currently a director on the boards of eight group companies.

Pallon was mentored by father Shapoor, uncle Cyrus and senior group executives. The children of Shapoor and Cyrus share a close bond, sources said.

The group is on a sounder footing now, banking officials said.

"The SP Group was able to do two large exits - Sterling & Wilson and Eureka Forbes - in record time and at good valuations," said one of them. "This created good liquidity for the group and gave confidence to lenders about the seriousness of the group to repay debts."

SPCPL exited its one-time restructuring (OTR) plan in FY22 with the repayment of debt ahead of schedule. It did this through the infusion of funds by promoters, proceeds from the monetisation of assets and a fresh term loan. "Since then, the SP's Group's banking credit rating has been restored," said the person cited above.

The group is betting on its legacy strength in contracting and real estate, oil and gas, and water. SPCPL is one of India's oldest engineering and construction companies with diverse interests. Its construction business has an order book in excess of ₹30,000 crore.

Pallonji Mistry had split the ownership of his empire, including the $27 billion Tata Sons' stake, equally between sons Shapoor and Cyrus, anointing the former as chairman of SPCPL.

Cyrus Mistry used his relationships with lenders and investment bankers to help steer the SP Group through the turbulent period after Covid, including monetisation to the tune of ₹3,750 crore at Sterling & Wilson Renewable Energy and Eureka Forbes.

Mistry has two sisters - Laila, married to Rustom Jehangir, a London-based portfolio fund manager, and Aloo, married to Noel Tata, half-brother of Ratan Tata. The Mistry family owns an 18.6% stake in the Tata Group holding company Tata Sons.