Mr Cyrus Mistry is proud of the Shapoorji Pallonji group’s 147 year heritage. He traces it back to a dam the then Littlewood Pallonji & Co built to bring water to the city of Bombay.

The junior Mistry used to look after construction and infrastructure at the group, while his elder brother, Mr Shapoor, headed the real estate and Forbes' ventures. Father Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry is chairman of the group.

In the decade and a half he has been at the helm of the INR 9,000 crore group, Mr Mistry has helped it build an impressive portfolio. The tallest residential building in India, the largest mall and the largest cement clinker plant in Asia he claims all these and more as the group’s icons.

Shapoorji Pallonji and Co, the group flagship, has grown over 10 fold since the turn of the millennium (Mr Cyrus took over as managing director much before, in 1994), with a turnover now of INR 2,678 crore and profit of INR 111 crore. Eureka Forbes, the company that made vacuum cleaners ubiquitous, grew a little over three times in size but profits grew more modestly, at a little over a half from INR 12.6 crore in 1999-2000 to INR 19.17 crore in 2009-10.

When he took over Afcons Infrastructure as its chairman in the year 2000, it was a INR 280 crore company, with INR 5 crore profit. Last year, the company’s revenues were INR 1,042 crore and net profit was INR 59 crore. An executive from Afcons said that Mr Mistry played a big part in the change. The executive added that "He is the guy who took over the management and turned it around. He is a hands-on entrepreneur.”

According to data on the Bombay Stock Exchange, Mr Cyrus is on the board of 14 unlisted companies and two listed ones, Forbes & Co and Gokak Textiles. There are 20 operating companies within the group.

(Sourced from BS)