Cyrus Mistry, former chairman of Tata Sons, died in a road accident on Sunday, September 4. He was travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai in a car when he met with an accident. The two people travelling with him, including the driver, were injured and have been hospitalised. 

Pallonji Mistry was Cyrus Mistry’s father. 

Indian business magnate Pallonji Mistry, who headed the 156-year-old Shapoorji Pallonji Group, died at the age of 93, with many describing the industrialist’s death as the end of an era.

The son of Shapoorji Pallonji, Mistry was born on June 1, 1929 in Gujarat, and joined his father’s business in 1947 at the age of 18. Whereas his father had built up a construction and real estate empire from scratch, starting from a single contract in Mumbai in 1865, Mistry took the group to the next level, expanding its business activities to overseas markets such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Qatar in West Asia, in addition to Africa, and South Asia.

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Mistry also oversaw the group’s expansion into sectors beyond construction and real estate, such as water, energy and even financial services.

The tycoon also went on to become the largest shareholder in the Tata Group, something that would later spark one of India’s biggest and most public corporate feud. Mistry and his family became the focus of public attention in 2012 when the tycoon’s younger son Cyrus was chosen to take the reigns of the Tata Group after Ratan Tata.

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However, Cyrus’ stint ended in chaos after a 2016 corporate coup led by Tata Trusts, sparking a bitter feud. After a slate of lawsuits against Tata’s board, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group in 2020 announced that it would sell its stake in the Tata Group. However, the sale has yet to transpire due to legal technicalities.

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Although Mistry could not realize the $16.7 billion he could have cashed in on from the sale of his stake in Tata Sons, the 93-year-old was worth $29 billion at the time of his death, according to Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.

Mistry, one of the richest men in India and Europe, became a citizen of Ireland in 2003 after his marriage to Dublin native Patsy Perin Dubash. Given his Irish citizenship, he also died the richest man in Ireland.

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2016 for his contributions to trade and industry.