Goldstein Roth & Co. is a subsidiary of Currimbhoy Mills Ltd, (1888) and is a group company of E. Pabaney & Co, which was incorporated in 1856 by Sir Fazalbhoy Currimbhoy. The firm is run by Sharik Currimbhoy.

The company through it’s sister-concern Goldstein Roth Ventures & Industries Pvt. Ltd. has interests in the consumer goods, ecommerce, real estate and retail.

Consumer Goods: The founding family runs Shahnaz Herbals, India’s leading cosmetics company. Shahnaz Husain, the founder of the company, is considered a living icon and is still actively running all aspects of the company’s growth.

Real Estate: The family owns a retail mall in New Delhi, commercial office space in Mumbai and New Delhi, land parcels and residential investment assets in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, London and New York.

Investment Banking: Goldstein, Roth & Co. is an investment banking and advisory practice.

Family Office: The family office is run out of Goldstein, Roth & Co. by its investment management team.

History

The Currimbhoy business empire started in the early 1820’s in the ancient Indian dhow port of Mandvi. It was from here that Ebrahim Pabaney, a wealthy and enterprising trader, who owned his own ships, traded with Arabia, Zanzibar and Bombay. Later, he moved his business to the bustling English port city from where he expanded into sending cotton-yarn to Canton (Guangdong), China.

His son, Sir Fazalbhoy Currimbhoy Ebrahim, established E. Pabaney & Co. in 1856 in Bombay as a trading company. In 1857, it opened an office in Hong Kong on Duddell street for trading in opium, yarn, cotton, silk and tea, and soon set up offices all over the Far East. Ships belonging to their company E.Pabaney & Co. traded between India, Africa, China, Hong Kong and the Far East. In Shanghai, the company was listed as the “8 Bali Foreign” company (八巴利洋行 / bā bālì yángháng ). In 1903, the company established itself in Singapore for the trading of opium and yarn.

In 1888, Sir Fazalbhoy Currimbhoy purchased and revitalized a group of defunct mills which he dubbed the Currimbhoy Mills; ten years later he acquired the Mahomedbhoy Mills; in 1900 he purchased the Crescent Mills, by which time the business controlled four mills in Bombay. In 1905 he set up the Currimbhoy Bleaching and Dyeing Works, and finally, in 1915 he acquired the Pearl Mills. Under Currimbhoy’s skilful management these mills yielded very high dividends, and conferred upon him the reputation of being one of the leading industrialists of Bombay.

King George V issued Letters Patent conferring the “dignity, state and degree” of a Baronet on Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim of Bombay and to “the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten and to be begotten”.

In order to provide for the upkeep and dignity of the Baronetey, the then Governor General of India in Council enacted the Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim Baronetcy Act, 1913. By this, considerable properties belonging to Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim were settled upon the trustee to support the dignity of the hereditary title for the first baronet and his heirs, following the precedent set by the Cowasji Jehangir Baronetcy Act of 1911. The first trustees included the first baronet and three officials of the Government of Bombay.

Under Currimbhoy’s skilful management, the empire grew to thirteen very profitable mills sometimes giving public dividends of up to fifty percent. He became a leading business personality of Bombay and sat on the Board of Directors of the Bank of India, one of the best-run banks at the time. By 1920, Sir Currimbhoy Ebrahim was the wealthiest Indian in the world.

Group of mills under the Agency of Currimbhoy Ebrahim & Sons Ltd., taken by an unknown photographer circa 1917