Ahmedabad, 23 November, 2011

43-year-old Cyrus Mistry, the younger son of construction tycoon Pallonji Mistry and MD of Shapoorji Pallonji group will take over as Chairman of Tata group after Ratan Tata retires next year in December.

Mistry has been appointed Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons. He was appointed to the board of Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata group at the age of 38 in 2006 after his father retired and vacat the position.

The Mistry family holds a valuable 18% stake in Tata Sons and Cyrus’s father Pallonji Mistry was board member for a long time. Cyrus’s grandfather Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry bought 12.5% from the FE Dinshaw Estate some time in the 1930. He later acquired more stake from other Tata family members, taking his holding to about 16.5%.

JRD Tata, who was appointed Tata group chairman in 1938, was incensed. But cooler heads prevailed and the two families decided to let the matter subside and maintain a cordial relationship. Pallonji Mistry, who took over from his father in the 1970s, built on that and his daughter Aloo Mistry’s marriage to Noel Tata, Mr Ratan Tata’s step-brother, seemed to indicate that relations were on a normal level.

Pallonji Mistry’s family is the biggest non-Tata shareholder in Tata Sons. In the early 1990s, he invested over Rs 60 crore of his own money in the Tata Sons rights issue to maintain his stake in the company. The other major shareholders of Tata Sons are the Tata Trusts and some of the Tata group companies.