Mumbai: Jehangir ‘Jeh’ Wadia, younger son of Wadia Group chairman Nusli Wadia, has returned to the family business after a four-year break with the aim of reinventing older businesses and betting on the new. He’s focused on repositioning the Bombay Dyeing textile brand as a consumer-centric real estate company. Jeh Wadia (52) is also identifying new business opportunities with brother Ness (54) and father Nusli (81), the head of the group.
The plan is to institutionalise the group’s real estate operations under the Bombay Realty brand.
“I will be in a strategic role to bring a sharp, defined vision for governance, institutionalisation, and shareholder wealth creation,” he said in an interview at Neville House, Bombay Dyeing’s headquarters, in Mumbai’s leafy Ballard Estate. Bombay Dyeing, the Wadia Group flagship, is a brand that has deep roots in the Indian cultural psyche, having been around for about a century and a half.
The 288-year-old Wadia Group owns four listed companies—Britannia, Bombay Dyeing, National Peroxide and Bombay Burmah—with a combined market capitalisation of ₹1.38 lakh crore.
Jeh Wadia is applying a “funnel approach” to filter current and new ventures and assets into strategic, financial and exit categories.
“These have to be evaluated completely unemotionally with the main focus on generating shareholder wealth,” he said. “My investment philosophy is to understand the full ecosystem and capitalise on it.”
The company will begin by unlocking land held by group companies and the family. It will then explore joint ventures with third-party landowners.
“We have a legacy experience, in different areas of real estate, though it was unorganised,” Wadia said. “The focus now is to institutionalise it under one unified brand. The Bombay Dyeing name must remain relevant for the next generation.”
The Wadias have a history of philanthropy through real estate. Between 1908 and 1956, they developed housing complexes for the Parsi community on 35 acres of Mumbai land. These include Nowroz Baug, Rustom Baug, Bai Jerbai Baug, Cusrow Baug and Ness Baug, as well as two 300-bed charitable hospitals more than a century ago.
The group has also developed several Mumbai landmarks in the Worli and Bandra-Kurla Complex areas, including Samudra Mahal, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) building, Union Bank of India headquarters, Twin Towers, Beach Towers, Springs, ICC One and Two and the Axis Bank HQ.
The idea is to bridge a key gap.
“Worli and Sewri are gaining importance with the Navi Mumbai airport and improved connectivity,” Wadia said. “However, in general, there’s a trust deficit between builders and buyers. Our brand stands for integrity and reliability—values earned over generations. We’ll begin in Mumbai and expand nationally.”
The Island City Centre (ICC) project will soon launch with residential offerings. Commercial developments—including office centres and high-street malls—are also being evaluated. “The live-work ecosystem will offer clear land titles, allowing customers to live and work in the same development,” he said.
In September 2024, Bombay Dyeing sold a 22-acre Worli plot to Japan’s Sumitomo Realty for ₹5,200 crore—the largest land deal in India to date.
Wadia relocated to London during the pandemic and stepped away from active business in 2021.
“That was a personal decision,” he said. “I left because I had put my family before business during Covid. I had to get my wife and children to London and fulfil my responsibilities as a father.”
The return followed discussions with his father, who persuaded him to lend his strategic skills to support the group’s next phase of growth. While the family continues to live in London, Wadia is expected to spend significantly more time in India to help guide the group businesses.
Technology has enabled quick decision-making when it comes to managing businesses, he said.
“Pre-Covid, running an organisation remotely was difficult,” he said. “The pandemic forced boards and management to embrace digital. Today, we are a fully analytical, knowledge- and data-driven organisation.”
He has resumed non-executive roles at group companies Britannia, Bombay Burmah and National Peroxide, and is expected to take charge as MD of Bombay Dyeing. Elder brother Ness remains MD of Bombay Burmah and National Peroxide.
The younger Wadia is unsure about the official titles he will hold in the group, emphasising professional management across group businesses.
“I don’t need to wear the CEO or chairman hat. I’m a director—and a professional shareholder. Earlier, promoters were hands-on. Today, the goal is to create shareholder value and transition towards a board-governed organisation,” he said. “Under my father’s leadership, we have a professional team to run all businesses. We run money, not businesses. The promoter’s job isn’t to be the loudest in the room—it’s to hire the best and listen to them. I don’t believe in a one-man army. If a company can’t function without me, I’ve failed as a promoter and manager.”
The failure of Go First, launched in 2005 as Go Air, remains a sore chapter. The carrier filed for voluntary insolvency in May 2023 after facing financial troubles, including the grounding of a significant portion of its fleet due to engine issues with Pratt & Whitney.
“The collapse still weighs on me. I dedicated 17 years to building it,” he said. “Our trust in Pratt & Whitney proved to be a costly miscalculation—through no fault of ours. Over half our fleet was grounded while we bore the full operational costs. That crippled efficiency, escalated costs, and eventually forced my father to make the difficult call to declare bankruptcy.”
The loss of faith was the biggest blow.
“What hurt most was losing customer trust,” he said. “We were known for our on-time performance, punctuality, and reliability. P&W hadn’t tested engines for Indian conditions. We powered our first 72 Airbus A320neos with them, assuming Airbus certification guaranteed reliability… We felt P&W was a well-established brand with a historic track record of providing reliable engines. Unfortunately, we were very wrong. But we have a strong legal case for compensation, and I am pleased to say it’s progressing well.”
Wadia said his approach is rooted in data, transparency, and analytics.
“We strive to keep decisions objective, not subjective,” he said. “I’m analytically data-driven by nature. Every level of management has defined KRAs tied to KPIs. I rely on knowledge dashboards to access and share information, which teams interpret and act on.”
Sentiment won’t be part of the process.
“My job is to take the personality out of the process,” he said. “There’s no place for emotion in business. Entrepreneurs may need to drive early growth, but over time, companies must run independently, led by professionals. Our role is to create shareholder value—not run the business ourselves.”
