The Hindu : Front Page : Anil questions Mukesh's stand on management and ownership issues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

Anil questions Mukesh's stand on management and ownership issues

NEW DELHI, DEC. 8. The tussle in the Rs. 90,000-crore Reliance empire escalated today with Anil Ambani raising questions about his elder brother Mukesh Ambani's claims that ownership issues had been settled by their late father Dhirubhai Ambani in his lifetime. Sources close to Mr. Anil Ambani, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the group, confirmed to UNI that he had requested Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani to provide information to him on several points related to the latter's claim.

``If management issues had been resolved in Dhirubhai's lifetime, then how is it that Anil D. Ambani has no details or information about the same even till today?'' the sources said. They added Mr. Anil Ambani had also sought clarification from his brother on why no disclosures had been made to the stock exchanges and market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) so far. ``If management issues had been resolved in Dhirubhai's lifetime, how is it that no disclosures have been made to Reliance Industry Ltd (RIL) Board or its 36 lakh individual and institutional shareholders even till today,'' Mr. Anil Ambani is understood to have asked.

He has also sought to know why his powers as Managing Director were sought to be substantially curtailed only in July 2004, and not during Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani's lifetime (``when, according to Mukesh, these issues had been resolved''), or in 2002 when the founder of the group died. Mr. Anil Ambani is also understood to have wondered why, nearly three weeks after Mr. Mukesh Ambani had made a statement on the subject on November 22, ``no further details, information or documentation'' had been made available to anyone.

Mr. Anil Ambani's questions to his elder brother come just a few days after other members of the Ambani family had reportedly asked Mr. Mukesh Ambani to provide ``appropriate details'' of the steps he claimed his father had taken to settle ownership issues. Family sources had said that Dhirubhai's wife Kokilaben Ambani, Mr. Anil Ambani and sisters Deepti and Neena had made this request over the weekend. They are understood to have said that if Mr. Mukesh Ambani could produce evidence to show that if Dhirubhai Ambani had, indeed, taken such steps, they would abide by the decision.

In a statement issued on November 22, Mr. Mukesh Ambani had said that, in keeping with the worldwide trend of transformation of family-owned businesses, Dhirubhai Ambani had taken all necessary steps within his lifetime to separate ownership from management in Reliance. "With his extraordinary foresight, he has also settled all ownership issues pertaining to Reliance within his lifetime,'' he had said, adding that his remarks to a television channel a few days earlier on ownership issues in the group had been torn out of context. — UNI

PTI adds from New Delhi:

Responding to related questions, a spokesman for Mukesh-controlled Reliance Industries declined to be drawn into a discussion, dismissing the queries as a ``fishing expedition.'' Asked whether Dhirubhai's widow Kokilaben and her two daughters had sought details of the settlement of ownership issues, as claimed by Mukesh, he said RIL would not like to engage in a public statement on issues that are entirely in private domain. ``It is a figment of imagination,'' he said. The reports involving the names of women in the family are ``totally baseless'' and emanated from ``dubious, non- existent sources'' he said adding ``in fact these reports could be plants by vested interests intent on spreading disinformation.''

On a question from Anil's camp as to how his powers as Vice Chairman and Managing Director of RIL were sought to be curtailed as late as in July 2004, the spokesperson said it was ``baseless and mischievous.'' ``It does not arise as no powers of Vice Chairman and MD were diluted in July 2004,'' he asserted.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News Update

Stories in this Section

Bihar jails raided

High Court declines bail to Kanchi Acharya

Anil questions Mukesh's stand on management and ownership issues

No bar on induction of chargesheeted Ministers in Cabinet: Centre

Kalam lauds soldiers for Kargil victory

Sonia's birthday to be observed as `renunciation day'

Pakistan test-fires missile

Sunil Shastri resigns from BJP

Indian team in Dhaka

Abbas' record goal sinks India