Cyrus Mistry is no minnow in wealth creation

It was 100 years ago, on December 2, 1911, that the first blast furnace of Tata Iron and Steel Co at Jamshedpur spurted to life, kicking off a wave of wealth creation over the century to follow, not only for the promoters or the people of Jamshedpur, but also for the thousands of shareholders of the company.

Cut to 2011. The company, now rechristened Tata Steel, has a turnover of nearly Rs30,000 crore, a robust global presence and over 10 lakh shareholders.

A lot of that growth has come about after 1991, when the economy started opening up and Ratan Tata took over the reins of the company from JRD. During this period, the Tata Group has swelled to include around 92 companies, 31 of them listed, and has a total turnover of around $83 billion — a 13-fold growth in just two decades!

To say that expectations from Cyrus P Mistry, the newly named chairman-in-waiting, are high would therefore be an understatement.

But the 43-year-old Mistry is no stranger to wealth creation.

Appointed as managing director of Shapoorji Pallonji in 1995, he helped transform it from a reputed construction company to an infrastructure behemoth.

“He joined the company as managing director at the age of 27 and has taken the group to unimaginable heights,” said a top Shapoorji Pallonji official, requesting anonymity.

Revenues of Shapoorji Pallonji have grown 18 times since then, he said, declining to give out topline figures as the company is privately held. Reliable sources, however, pegged the company’s current revenues at Rs3,600 crore.

Jai Prakash Rao, director, corporate marketing strategy, Shapoorji Pallonji, said Mistry’s mission has been to make his company the first choice of customers through an undeterred focus on quality, similar to the values Ratan Tata is known for. “He also has a keen eye for green growth,” said Rao.

But the new job will be way more challenging —- especially managing the gargantuan debt on the books of Tata Group companies. To give an idea, Tata Steel has a gross debt of over Rs60,000 crore while Tata Motors has Rs44,000 crore.

How well the new helmsman steers the behemoth over the next three decades, only time will tell.