Birla-Wadia signal truce as Century buys Mumbai plot for Rs 1,100 cr

Mumbai: In what signals a truce between the Birla and Wadia families, Birla group company Century Textiles and Industry on Tuesday announced a deal to buy the prime land parcel at the centre of the dispute in central Mumbai's mill district from Nusli Wadia for Rs 1,100 crore.

The two families, among the oldest denizens of corporate India, were at loggerheads over the Worli plot in what used to be the mill land and has now become prime real estate. The matter was pending in the courts.

On Tuesday, Birlas-run Century Textiles and Industry made the surprise announcement that its realty arm Birla Estates is acquiring title rights for the approximately 10-acre plot for Rs 1,100 crore from Nusli Wadia.

The "existing leasehold interest of CTIL is merged with the ownership rights" with the deal, the statement said, adding that this particular parcel possesses a booking value potential of Rs 14,000 crore if the real estate is exploited to the fullest.

It can be noted that a year back, the nearly three century-old Wadia group had sold a 22-acre parcel nearby, which housed the group's headquarters, to Japan's Sumitomo for Rs 5,200 crore. Birla already has developments on the piece that was in its possession.

In the statement, Century said the newest deal paves the way for a 30-acre contiguous landholding in this prime area with an overall booking value potential of approximately Rs 28,000 crore.

It said that Birla Niyaara, the flagship project launched by Birla Estates on the plot, has already notched sales of Rs 5,700 crore since its launch.

According to reports, Nusli Wadia had moved the courts in 2009 over the use of the land, which was leased by his great-grandfather to Century for a period of 999 years. In 2007, a textile mill on the land was shut down and the Wadias had stressed on getting an approval for a change in land use. In 2010, a local court stayed any developments on the plot.

In 2022, with the Birlas' move to launch a new realty project led Wadias to issue a caution notice to the public asserting its control over the 10-acre parcel, and Birlas also said that the parcel was not part of the development offered to the public.

After clinching the Sumitomo deal last year, the Wadias-promoted Bombay Dyeing had said that the sale was an attempt at improving financial health.

In March 2022, board of the flagship Bombay Dyeing had decided to make the company leaner from a debt perspective, turn it into black and put it on the path to sustained profits by strengthening the balance sheets. It had reported a loss of Rs 517 crore in FY23, which turned into a Rs 2,948 crore profit in FY24.

The Bombay Dyeing scrip closed 1.23 per cent up at Rs 210.65 apiece on the BSE on Tuesday, while the Century scrip shot up 5.41 per cent to close the session at Rs 2,842.40 a piece.