(June 19): Billionaire Mukesh Ambani vowed to keep his empire undivided in the clearest comments yet that, unlike the acrimonious split with his brother in 2006, succession this time will not cleave India’s most valuable company.
The generational transfer of day-to-day management at Reliance Industries Ltd is almost complete and the retail-to-refining conglomerate is indivisible “now and forever”, Ambani, 69, told shareholders at the annual general meeting on Friday. He also announced the listing plans for the group’s digital unit — the first major IPO from the family after Reliance itself went public in 1977.
Ambani’s daughter Isha leads the consumer businesses while his elder son Akash helms digital and technology operations, including the unit that’s heading for a listing. His youngest Anant manages the legacy and new energy verticals.
“They are three bodies, one soul,” Ambani said. “Their soul is Reliance. One single indivisible Reliance, now and forever.”
Avoiding future disputes is crucial for Reliance investors as well as its billionaire-owner who recently lost the crown of Asia’s richest to Gautam Adani, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Reliance shares have slipped 16.6% this year, outpacing the losses in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
Hard lessons
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Ambani’s forceful assertion on Friday that history will not repeat itself also shows the hard lessons learned more than two decades back. He battled a years-long bitter feud with his younger brother, Anil, after their father and Reliance founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, died in 2002 without a will.
The fraternal fight was so intense that it forced their mother Kokilaben to intervene and hammer out a family truce, splitting the businesses. Mukesh retained the company’s oil, gas, petrochemicals and textiles businesses while Anil took control of telecom, financial services and power assets.
Unlike Dhirubhai who never delineated work publicly between his two sons, Ambani has been more deliberate and public about his succession planning. Under him, Reliance has groomed about 500 leaders, with domain expertise and technological fluency, to support Isha, Akash and Anant in running the businesses.
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Ambani has also tasked each of his children with at least one standout project to deliver on.
Akash, for instance, will be overseeing the Jio Platforms listing, which will be India’s largest IPO if it manages to raise as much as US$4 billion ($5.17 billion).
Besides expanding the digital unit, Akash is also helming the team that’s considering launching a network of satellites in a move that can rival Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Isha, on Friday, laid out a target for the closely held Reliance Consumer Product Ltd to more than quadruple revenues by 2030 to US$10.5 billion. It also plans to manufacture everything from beverages and daily essentials to televisions, smartphones, and connected wearables.
Reliance’s legacy cash cow energy operations is managed by Anant, where the group is plowing billions of dollars in solar power, battery storage systems and green materials including hydrogen and ammonia.
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