Cyrus Mistry, the youngest scion of the multi-billion dollar Shapoorji Pallonji group, has died in a tragic road accident in Maharashtra, India on September 4. He was 54-years old. Mistry, reportedly died when the car he was travelling in, lost control and hit a road divider on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway.

Cyrus, 54, was the youngest son of Pallonji Mistry who headed the Shapoorji Pallonji group until his retirement in 2012. For the 157-year-old multi-billion dollar Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the death of Cyrus Mistry is a double loss as it comes on the heels of the group patriarch's death in late June.

The Shapoorji Pallonji group, through their development arm Shapoorji Pallonji International Real Estate Development (SPIPD), have a vast portfolio of real estate and infrastructure developments in the Middle East such as the Arabella Town Houses, Springs Village Retail Expansion, the Jumeirah Lake Towers, Taj Grandeur in Dubai; Hotel Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Corniche Maternity Hospital in Abu Dhabi, the blue-and-gold Al Alam palace for the Sultan of Oman, and Ebene Cyber City in Mauritius, among many others.

The Shapoorji Pallonji group is valued at nearly US$ 30-billion in 2022, by the Bloomberg billionaires index. It is a hugely diversified group, which was founded by the late senior Pallonji Mistry (great grandfather of Cyrus) in British India in 1865 as Littlewood Pallonji & Co. Over the past century-and-a half, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group's interest grew, and evolved to span Engineering & Construction, Infrastructure, Real Estate, Water, Energy and Financial Services. The group employs more than 70,000 people in more than 70 countries today, as per the compnay's website. The group also owns 18.6 per cent in the $130-billion Tata Group.

Cyrus Mistry, exited the operations of the family business almost a decade ago, having entrusted it to his elder brother Shapoor Mistry. Cyrus was appointed chairman of Tata Sons in 2013, following which he withdrew completely from the family business, "to ensure that there is no conflict of interest with the Tata group", including banning his family companies from entering into any business with any Tata entities unless through open competitive budding.

Most recently, Shapoorji Pallonji International Real Estate Development announced that it is on track to deliver the Imperial Avenue residential project in Downtown Dubai in 2023, which has been partly backed by London-based alternative asset management firm Hayfin Capital Management, as per a press release in Zawya.

Earlier this year, DAMAC Properties too awarded a construction contract worth over AED500 million to Shapoorji Pallonji Co Ltd for the main works at the Santorini Cluster of its latest luxury community development project, DAMAC Lagoons in Dubailand, close to the DAMAC Hills.