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| The Enigma
called Pallonji Mistry |
| Despite being one
of the richest Indians and the single largest shareholder
of Tata Sons, Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry has preferred
to remain in the shadows. But soon, he may not be
able to. |
| by Indrajit Gupta and T. Surendar |
|
 Sterling
Bay, 103, Walkeshwar, reads like the address of
any of those nondescript, nouveau riche businessmen
who throng this South Mumbai neighbourhood. But
it isn’t. Even the local paanwala near Chowpatty
knows who stays there and won’t take more than
a few seconds to direct you up the hill to the cream-coloured
Georgian mansion overlooking the sea. Behind the
black and gold wrought iron and stained glass gates,
Sterling Bay looks remote. Just like its reclusive
owner.
Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, 74, would have it no
other way. Mistry is one of the richest Indians,
but you seldom hear about him. With an estimated
net worth of $2 billion (Rs 9,200 crore), he ranks
fifth among Indians in the Forbes Billionaires 2003
list, after software czar Azim Premji, the Ambani
brothers, K.M. Birla and Lakshmi Mittal (See ‘The
Richest Indians’). But that’s not his
sole claim to fame. With a stake of 18.37%, Mistry
is the single largest individual shareholder of
Tata Sons, the holding company of the Rs 44,000-crore
Tata group. His holding is six times that of group
chairman Ratan Tata and his family. Yet his business
empire, and his role in one of India’s biggest
conglomerates still remain cloaked in a veil of
secrecy.
Try asking senior Tata executives who’ve spend
an entire lifetime in the group about Mistry. Very
few know much about him. Serving, or even former
Tata Sons directors who have dealt with Mistry prefer
not to speak about him at all. Little wonder they
call him the Phantom of Bombay House. Mistry has
a few very close friends in the Parsi community,
but even they would rather not talk about their
relationship with him. Except for a couple of rare
media interviews in the past, Mistry prefers to
stay away from the limelight. According to a family
spokesman, Mistry refused to share details of his
assets with Forbes because “he doesn’t
need to tell you he’s rich!”
But now, however much Mistry may like to remain
in the shadows, unobserved, a concatenation of circumstances
could make that very difficult. Let’s start
counting the reasons. No.1: Ratan Tata will soon
have to start thinking about his successor, and
as the single largest shareholder in Tata Sons,
Mistry will not be an uninterested observer. No.2:
When the Tatas take Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
public in what is expected to be the biggest-ever
IPO in the Indian market, Mistry will take home
one of the largest windfalls ever to have  appeared
before a person: roughly Rs 700 crore! No.3: Mistry’s
own real estate and construction group, which has
had modest ambitions so far, is now starting to
think big because it expects all that cash infusion.
No.4: Mistry will have to retire from the Tata Sons
board later this year, and it is clear that he would
like his elder son to take his place. Will Ratan
Tata agree? Whatever the decision, one thing is
sure: you will be hearing more about the Mistrys
in future. Already, Mistry’s two sons have
been appointed on the boards of a few Tata companies.
What kind of a person then is Pallonji Mistry? He
is reclusive, but associates and friends describe
him as
affable and humble, seldom willing to assert his
authority or position. However, he carries a high
degree of credibility in his business dealings.
Zafar Iqbal, a former IAS officer, who worked as
CEO with the Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s real
estate division till about two years ago, says Mistry
is often willing to complete a construction project
even at a loss just to protect his reputation. Says
Tata Sons director and former TCS chief F.C. Kohli:
“They don’t make men like him these days.”
 But
that’s as far as it goes. There are two things
that no one has been able to quite gauge. One, his
ambitionsfor his own group and two, whether he is
content to continue as a passive investor in Tata
Sons.
Those questions are becoming more important than
ever now because, despite his best efforts to stay
out of the limelight, Mistry’s name is beginning
to pop up in conversation for a very different reason.
Noel Tata, Ratan’s half brother and the son
of Simone Tata, is married to Mistry’s eldest
daughter, Aloo. By the rules he himself framed,
Ratan will have to step down as chairman when he
turns 75. That means he still has almost
nine years to go. But Ratan sprang a surprise recently.
In an interview with a newswire after the Tata Motors
annual general meeting, he said he would retire
by December 2007. Most insiders also reckon that
a clearer picture will emerge in the next 3-4 years.
Noel seems strongly placed to don the mantle of
Ratan’s heir apparent. But Bombay House insiders
say the matter is far from settled. No one knows
whether Ratan will plumb for Noel or go for professionals
like R. Gopalakrishnan or Ishaat Hussain, or Unilever’s
Keki Dadiseth. Mistry is apparently keen that Ratan
appoints Noel. Whether Ratan Tata will pay heed
to Mistry’s wishes is not known yet.
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