India’s richest man appoints children to board of $220-billion empire
Mukesh Ambani, the richest business tycoon in Asia with a personal net worth of over $82 billion, has set in motion a succession plan for his business empire.
Ambani’s three children, twin brother and sister Akash and Isha, 31, and their younger sibling Anant, 28, were appointed as non-executive directors to the board of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) – the energy-to-technology conglomerate and India’s largest company in terms of market value.
Ambani is set to continue his leadership of Reliance Industries for an additional five years, during which he will not only guide the company but also nurture and mentor his children to steer the Indian conglomerate, valued at $200 billion.
The Ambani scions will head three businesses that are almost equal in size. Akash and Isha will lead the conglomerate’s new-age businesses of retail and telecoms, which are wholly-owned subsidiaries, respectively.
Anant, a graduate of Brown University in the US, who is involved in RIL’s oil-to-chemical (O2C) division, will lead the group’s energy division. He is focusing on renewable energy and has been spending a considerable time in Jamnagar Refinery amid RIL’s plans to become a net-zero-carbon company by 2035.
Akash, also a graduate from Brown, was part of a team that in 2020 brokered Facebook’s $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, which incorporates several businesses, including telecoms operator Reliance Jio, which has emerged as the number one mobile carrier in India, by revenue and subscriber base. Akash also helped broker other major deals with global investors such as KKR and TPG.
Isha, a graduate of Yale University and wife of Anand Piramal, the heir of another Indian conglomerate, Piramal Group, drives RIL’s retail, e-commerce and luxury businesses. She also helped her mother Nita Ambani to launch a Broadway-style theater and arts center in Mumbai earlier this year.
On Monday, the board of RIL also accepted the resignation of Nita Ambani, in deference to her wish to devote more time and energy to the non-profit Reliance Foundation.
Mukesh Ambani, 66, first hinted at having a succession plan in December 2021. The generational shift became apparent last June when Akash was appointed chairman of Reliance Jio Telecom, after joining the unit in 2014.
The announcement, made at RIL’s annual general meeting on Monday, underscored Ambani Snr’s bid to avoid the tumultuous and public discord that ensued two decades ago following the demise of his father and the company’s founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, in 2002. The absence of a will had triggered a bitter dispute between his sons, Mukesh and Anil Ambani. The Ambani brothers’ spat led to a split in 2005 brokered by their mother Kokilaben.
Mukesh inherited oil and petrochemicals, while Anil got telecommunications, power, and the financial business, among other units.
Over the next decade, Mukesh rose to become the richest Asian business figure, while Anil pleaded “zero” net worth at a London court in 2020. The warring brothers appeared to bury the hatchet in 2019, when Mukesh helped Anil to make a $77-million payment that allowed the bankrupt younger sibling to avoid a prison term.
