13 highlights
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In other words, Jeh had moved out of the airline he had built, to be replaced by professionals. It looked like Nusli, chairman of the airline, was separating ownership and management of the family businesses, a prudent step.
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GoAir had now become Go First in a move to limit royalty payments to its former managing director who owned rights to trademarks like Go, GoAir and Fly Smart. Till now it’s unknown why Jeh’s private firms owned these trademarks. Like we had detailed earlier, Jeh and Go First are now exploring legal actions against each other.
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A protracted legal tussle between Nusli and Jeh, a possibility given that the younger son could stake a claim to the family wealth and assets, will threaten the business again.
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Perhaps, Nusli, also the grandson of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was more interested in politics. Over the years, Nusli has been close to political leaders, mostly of the right-wing kind.
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As the grandson of Ness Wadia, the “Cotton King” who played a critical role in turning Mumbai into a textile hub over a century ago, becoming a businessman was all but expected of Nusli.
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Ironically, his career might end with a tussle with his son; Nusli’s first corporate fight was with his father Neville who wanted to sell Bombay Dyeing to RPG Group founder R.P. Goenka and relocate to the UK.
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Nusli prevailed over his father, with help from mother Dina Wadia and godfather J.R.D. Tata, the iconic Tata Sons chairman. The legend goes that Tata called up Goenka, who had already bought Bombay Dyeing, and requested that the shares be returned. In a sign of times when industry titans shared bonhomie beyond public appearances, Goenka agreed.
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But Ratan Tata’s boardroom battle with then Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry tested the friendship. Nusli sided with Mistry and was later ousted from several Tata boards.
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The Wadia family trust manages the five colonies along with the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, the body representing the Parsi community in Mumbai.
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The low-cost airline is the only one that can claim to match industry leader IndiGo in profitability. In the eight years till 2019, GoAir was profitable in all but one year.
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The other profitable foray, thanks to the 700 acres that the group owns in Mumbai, has been in real estate under the brand of Bombay Realty, one of the three verticals under Bombay Dyeing. The company’s other two businesses are the legacy textile retail and polyester staple fibre, or PSF.
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A senior executive from a rival textile retail firm added, “There are more fake Bombay Dyeing bedsheets in the market than the genuine ones.”
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The Tata group, a century-old business house, has never had a problem with continuity. That is largely thanks to its unique structure where the trusts are the legal custodians of the businesses.