Mumbai:

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani attended the wedding of the youngest son of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani.

Mr Ambani’s youngest son Anant and fiancee Radhika Merchant, both 29, got married in a grand ceremony at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai.

The wedding ceremony will be followed by ‘Shubh Aashirwad’ on Saturday, and culminate with the Mangal Utsav or wedding reception on Sunday.

Bollywood stars, politicians, international celebrities and other public personalities attended the wedding ceremony.
 

“The auction, where a total of 10 GHz of spectrum ranging between 800 MHz to 26 GHz was offered, got total bids worth ₹11,340 crore,” sources said.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

An auction of radiowaves that carry voice and data signals for mobile phones ended within two days on June 26, garnering less than 12% of the ₹96,238 crore minimum value that the government had estimated for the spectrum on offer.

“The auction, where a total of 10 GHz of spectrum ranging between 800 MHz to 26 GHz was offered, got total bids worth ₹11,340 crore,” sources said.

Five rounds of bidding happened on the opening day on June 25, but on June 26 (Wednesday), there was not much action, leading to officials declaring the end of the auction at around 11.30 hrs.

“The total bids received is more or less the same, as what came in on Tuesday,” sources said, adding only 140-150 MHz are estimated to have been sold. On offer were radiowaves in the bands of — 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz.

During the last auction in 2022, which turned out to be a seven-day affair, a record over ₹1.5 lakh crore worth of 5G telecom spectrum was sold, with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio emerging as the top bidder, cornering nearly half of all the airwaves (worth ₹88,078 crore).

At that time, telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel made a successful bid of ₹43,084 crore, while Vodafone Idea bought Spectrum for ₹18,799 crore.

New Delhi:

India is poised to become a 21st-century economic powerhouse, offering an alternative to China for investors looking for growth and for reducing supply chain risks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani playing a fundamental role in shaping the economic superpower the country will become in the coming decades, according to a CNN report.

The report says to spur growth, the Modi government has begun a massive infrastructure transformation by spending billions on building roads, ports, airports and railways.

It is also heavily promoting digital connectivity, which can improve both commerce and daily life.

“Both Mr Adani and Mr Ambani have become key allies as the country embarks on this revolution,” it said.

Worth $3.7 trillion in 2023, India is the world’s fifth largest economy, jumping four spots in the rankings during PM Modi’s decade in office and leapfrogging the United Kingdom.

“It is comfortably placed to expand at an annual rate of at least 6 per cent in the coming few years, but analysts say the country should be targeting growth of eight per cent or more if it wants to become an economic superpower. Sustained expansion will push India higher up the ranks of the world’s biggest economies, with some observers forecasting the South Asian nation to become number three behind only the US and China by 2027,” the CNN analysis said.

The Adani Group and Reliance Industries – the two sprawling conglomerates having valuations worth over $200 billion each – have established businesses in sectors ranging from fossil fuels and clean energy to media and technology.

“Investors have been cheering the duo’s ability to adroitly bet on sectors prioritised for development by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently campaigning for his third consecutive term to lead India. The South Asian country is poised to become a 21st-century economic powerhouse, offering a real alternative to China for investors hunting for growth and manufacturers looking to reduce risks in their supply chains,” the report said.

“As a result, these three men — PM Modi, Mr Ambani and Mr Adani — are playing a fundamental role in shaping the economic superpower India will become in the coming decades,” it added.

The report also pointed out that the kind of power and influence being enjoyed by the two Indian tycoons has been seen before in other countries “experiencing periods of rapid industrialisation.”

It said that both Mr Adani and Mr Ambani are often compared by journalists to John D Rockefeller, who became America’s first billionaire during the Gilded Age, a 30-year period in the last decades of the 19th century.

“India is in the middle of something that America and lots of other countries have already gone through. Britain in the 1820s, South Korea in the 1960s and 70s, and you could argue China in the 2000s,” said James Crabtree, the author of The Billionaire Raj, a book about India’s wealthy.

Mumbai, which is considered India’s financial capital, has the imprint of the two tycoons everywhere, from high-rise apartment buildings branded with Adani Realty to cultural institutions named after the Ambani clan, and even the international airport, which is operated by Adani.

“Some spaces need no names or bright labels, but their affiliations are just as obvious. Everyone in Mumbai knows who lives in Antilia — the personal skyscraper of Ambani and his family, which reportedly cost $2 billion to build and boasts a spa, three helipads and a 50-seat theatre. The 27-story building sits on a street dubbed ‘Billionaires’ Row,’ its jutting geometric architecture looming over the neighbourhood.”

The CNN report also mentions the grand pre-wedding celebration of Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant Ambani in March this year, when billionaires and movie stars from around the world jetted to Jamnagar.

Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Ivanka Trump were among the many high-profile celebrities in attendance. The three-day celebration, which saw performances by popstar Rihanna and magician David Blaine, transfixed India and further underscored Mr Ambani’s growing global clout.

Guido Cozzi, professor of macroeconomics at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, said these “conglomerates are very, very important and very well connected,” noting that both the Adani Group and Reliance Industries were founded years before PM Modi came to power.

“They are not typical stagnant monopolistic conglomerates. They are pretty dynamic,” Mr Cozzi said.

Not only are they playing “an important role” in building infrastructure, which helps “growth directly,” but the two business groups are also helping the country expand “indirectly” by boosting connectivity through digital innovation, he explained.

Reliance was founded by Mr Ambani’s father, Dhirubhai, as a small yarn trading firm in Mumbai in 1957. Over the next few decades, it grew into a colossal conglomerate spanning energy, petrochemicals and telecommunications.

Mukesh Ambani has not only upended India’s telecom sector in less than a decade but also become a top player in sectors ranging from media to retail.

The report says that Mukesh Ambani’s ambition and breathless pace of expansion is matched by Mr Adani, “…who now helms businesses ranging from ports and power to defence and aerospace”.

A first-generation entrepreneur, the 62-year-old began his career with diamond trading, before setting up a commodity trading business in 1988, which later evolved into Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL).

According to a January note by American brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, AEL “is at the core of everything India wants to accomplish.”

The company functions as an incubator for Mr Adani’s businesses. Many have been spun out and become leading players in their respective sectors. According to Cantor, the firm’s current focus on airports, roads and energy make it “a unique long-term investment opportunity”.

The report notes that while both the barons built much of their fortune from fossil fuels, they are now investing billions in clean energy. Notably, their green energy pivot comes at a time when India has set itself some ambitious climate goals.

The report also notes that despite India’s success in terms of growth rate, soaring youth unemployment and inequality remain stubbornly persistent problems. In 2022, the country ranked a lowly 147 on gross domestic product (GDP) per person, a measure of living standards, according to the World Bank.

Opposition parties in India have targeted the BJP-led government alleging it has ties with the country’s super-rich and over the meteoric rise of Mr Adani.

The report said PM Modi’s “perceived relationship with the billionaires” is once again being questioned by rivals during the Lok Sabha polls

Some processes, particularly more transparency in the allocation of India’s natural resources and the overhauling of the country’s bankruptcy laws, have seen important reforms under PM Modi, he added.

According to report, some experts say that “some amount of closeness” between politicians and business elite “can help in growing the nation faster.”

The report also suggests that India needs to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation bringing more firms into the sphere, as a country, where millions of people join the labour force every month, can’t be absorbed by a few conglomerates.

“They are phenomenal … entrepreneurs, who have been able to sustain steady growth and development in a vibrant yet sometimes chaotic political and business environment that exists in India,” said Rohit Lamba, an economist at Pennsylvania State University, who is also the co-author of Breaking the Mould, a 2023 book that examines how Indian economy can grow.

“India cannot grow rich before it becomes old on the back of a few big firms like Adani or Ambani…India should make more firms,” he added.

The report says India has other conglomerates as well. The 156-year-old Tata Group wields immense power over various key sectors ranging from steel to aviation, but it often does not invite the same scrutiny as the newer conglomerates, mainly because it is controlled by philanthropic trusts and not run as a family dynasty.

India has been the fastest-growing large economy in the last three financial years.

(Disclaimer: New Delhi Television is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.)

He was ranked the sixth richest person in the world in 2008 but a series of setbacks — the latest being the Supreme Court setting aside a ₹8,000 crore arbitral award that was granted in favour of a firm in his group — reversed his fortunes.

An MBA from Wharton School, Anil Ambani, 64, the younger son of legendary business tycoon, Dhirubhai Ambani, was known for his flamboyant nature — he married bollywood actress Tina Munim and was a Rajya Sabha MP for two years — as much as for his unbeatable business acumen. But over the past few years, he has had setbacks across businesses that pushed him out of the billionaire list.

The Supreme Court on April 10 set aside a ₹8,000 crore arbitral award granted in favour of Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt (DAMEPL).

The award was in relation to a dispute arising out of a “concession agreement” that was entered into between DAMEPL (a subsidiary of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure) and Delhi Metro Rail Corp in 2008. The court asked DAMEPL to refund all sums previously paid by the Delhi Metro Rail in accordance with the arbitral award. DMRC had paid ₹3,300 crore to the Reliance Infra arm, which now needs to be refunded.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure Ltd in a stock exchange filing that no liability has been imposed on it by the Supreme Court order. “Reliance Infrastructure wishes to clarify that the Order dated April 10, 2024, passed by the Supreme Court does not impose any liability on the company and the company has not received any money from DMRC/DAMEPL under the arbitral award,” it said.

While DAMEPL is a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, it is a separate entity and the liability falls on it.

Rise and fall

After Dhirubhai suffered a stroke in 1986, Anil took on day-to-day management of Reliance’s financial relationships under his father’s oversight. He and his elder brother, Mukesh, assumed joint leadership of the Reliance companies after their father’s death in 2002.

But soon after they feuded over control, leading to split — Mukesh got control of flagship oil and petrochemicals, while Anil gained control of the newer businesses such as telecommunications, power generation, and financial services through a 2005 demerger.

The two brothers, who had diverging fortunes thereafter, did not stop feuding. They fought over supply of gas from fields operated by Mukesh’s company to the power plant of Anil’s group. The elder brother won the case in Supreme Court which said a family pact cannot override a government’s allocation policy.

Anil borrowed money to fuel an expansion with forays into infrastructure, defence and entertainment businesses. In 2009, the Allahabad High Court quashed land acquisition for the proposed mega gas-based power project at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh by Anil’s group.

A non-compete clause between the brothers kept Mukesh out of telecom but that was scrapped in 2010. Mukesh quickly returned, pumping in more than ₹2.5 lakh crore over the next seven years to build a speedier 4G wireless network, which drove out competition, including Anil’s Reliance Communications (RCom).

His venture into the entertainment business with a $1.2 billion deal with Adlabs in 2005 and DreamWorks in 2008 did not work. In 2014, his power and infrastructure companies plunged into huge debt. Anil sold assets to quell investor concerns around the indebtedness of some of his companies. He sold companies like Big Cinema, Reliance Big Broadcasting, and Big Magic. RCom, which ushered in a telecom revolution in the country, was sent to insolvency proceedings to repay debt.

His bets on defence manufacturing, too, failed.

In 2019, the Supreme Court had threatened Anil Ambani with prison after Reliance Communications (RCom) failed to pay ₹550 crore to Ericsson AB’s Indian Unit. The court gave him a month to find the funds and Mukesh Ambani bailed him out at the last moment by giving the required money.

In 2019, three Chinese banks dragged Anil Ambnai to a London court over a $680 million loan default. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd, China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China had in 2012 agreed to loan $925 million to his group firm Reliance Communications on condition that he provide a personal guarantee.

RCom defaulted and the three banks sued Anil Ambani, who said he agreed to give a non-binding “personal comfort letter” but never a guarantee tied to his personal assets. The matter is still in court.

Reliance Capital filed for bankruptcy in 2021 after defaulting on bonds worth ₹24,000 crore.

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, which built Mumbai’s first metro line, missed a bond payment as it waited for proceeds from the sale of power transmission assets to Gautam Adani’s unit to cover the amount.

Mumbai:

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has received a fresh death email threatening to shoot him if he does not pay Rs 200 crore, the police said on Saturday.

The police said that this time the person who sent the email raised his demand from Rs 20 crore to Rs 200 crore due to no response to his previous email.

“Another email came from the same account which read: ‘U have not responded to our email now the amount is 200 crore otherwise the death warrant is signed’,” the police said.

On Friday, Mukesh Ambani received an email threatening to shoot him if he doesn’t pay Rs 20 crore.

According to the Mumbai police, the threat mail said: “If you don’t give us 20 crore rupees, we will kill you, we have the best shooters in India.”

Based on a complaint by Mukesh Ambani’s security in-charge, the Gamdevi Police in south Mumbai registered a case against an unknown person under Sections 387 and 506 (2) of the Indian Penal Code.

Further investigation is underway.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani. File.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has received an email threatening to shoot him dead if he failed to pay ₹20 crore, a Mumbai police official said on October 28.

The industrialist received the death threat email on Friday, and based on a complaint lodged by his security in-charge, a first information report (FIR) was registered against an unidentified person at the Gamdevi police station, he said.

“The email that Ambani received said that he will be shot if he failed to pay ₹20 crore,” he said.

The case was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 387 (putting a person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), he said, adding that a massive manhunt has been launched to nab the person who sent the mail.

Last year, the Mumbai police had arrested a man from Bihar’s Darbhanga for making death threat calls to Mukesh Ambani and his family members. The accused had also threatened to blow up the Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai.

Mumbai:

Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries chairman, received a death threat earlier this week, police said today. In an email, a person threatened to kill the industrialist if he didn’t give him Rs 20 crore.

“If you don’t give us 20 crore rupees, we will kill you. We have the best shooters in India,” the email said.

The threat was sent by a person named Shadab Khan on October 27, the police said adding that a complaint was filed after security officials at Mr Ambani’s Mumbai residence, Antilia, brought the death threat to their notice.

Gamdevi Police of Mumbai registered a case against an unknown person under sections 387 and 506 (2) of IPC and started the investigation.

This is not the first time that Mukesh Ambani has received death threats.

Mumbai Police had last year arrested a man from Bihar for making anonymous calls threatening to target Mr Ambani and his family members. The caller had threatened to “blow up” the HN Reliance Foundation Hospital along with the Ambani family residence ‘Antilia’ in south Mumbai.

In 2021,  an explosives-laden SUV was found near Mr Ambani’s residence in south Mumbai. Businessman Hiran, who was in possession of the SUV, was found dead in a creek in neighbouring Thane on March 5 last year.

New Delhi:

US Investment firm KKR & Co Inc has increased its stake in billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail Ventures by investing an additional $250 million at a valuation of $100 billion, adding to its bet on the country’s biggest retailer.

The private equity firm’s follow-on investment translates into an additional equity stake of 0.25 percent in Reliance Retail on a fully-diluted basis, taking KKR’s total equity stake in the Indian company to 1.42 percent, the retailer said on Monday.

The investment marks growing interest in Mukesh Ambani’s retail operations which stretch from groceries to electronics, and include foreign partnerships with brands such as Jimmy Choo, Marks & Spencer and Pret A Manger. It has more than 18,000 stores and also competes with Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart.

In 2020, Reliance Retail raised $5.71 billion by selling a 10.09 percent stake to investors including KKR, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, General Atlantic and the United Arab Emirates’ Mubadala.

That year, KKR had invested 55.5 billion rupees ($669.65 million) in Reliance Retail. Ambani recently said the 2020 fundraising valued the business at around $52 billion, and “in less than three years, the valuation of retail has almost doubled.”

KKR’s latest investment comes primarily from its Asian Fund IV and the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, Reliance said. Morgan Stanley acted as financial adviser to Reliance Retail.

Reuters exclusively reported this month Reliance was in advanced talks with global investors to raise around $2.5 billion by the end of September, ahead of a potential stock market listing. Mr Ambani said in 2019 that the group planned to list the retail business in five years.

The plan is part of a combined $3.5 billion target the firm set for itself, of which it raised $1 billion from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) at a $100 billion valuation last month.

Reliance Retail reported a consolidated net profit of 91.81 billion rupees ($1.11 billion) for the financial year that ended in March 2023, on revenue of 2.6 trillion rupees.

Since last year, Reliance has been acquiring dozens of small grocery and non-food brands as it tries to build a consumer business with annual sales of $6 billion within five years to challenge foreign giants like Unilever.

India’s richest businessmen, led by Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, will join G20 leaders at a dinner in the national capital on Saturday, as the country showcases its position as the world’s fastest growing major economy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to wield leadership of the G20 grouping of the world’s most powerful economies to promote India as a destination for trade and investment, particularly as China’s economy slows.

U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are expected to be part of the gathering in New Delhi.

Among the 500 businessmen invited are Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, Bharti Airtel founder-chairman Sunil Mittal, in addition to Reliance Industries’ Ambani and the Adani Group chairman, two sources said.

“This dinner … will host various state heads and makes for an opportunity to gather India’s Who’s Who during the leaders’ summit,” said one Indian official who spoke about the closed-door event on condition of anonymity.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the weekend summit, however.

Saturday’s dinner will afford PM Modi another opportunity to highlight business and investment opportunities in India. To be held at a brand-new Bharat Mandapam, the menu will feature Indian food with a special emphasis on millets, a grain the country has been promoting.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

(Disclaimer: New Delhi Television is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.)

Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani took another step on Monday to lay out a succession plan at Reliance Industries Ltd.

The 66-year-old elevated his three children as non-executive directors to Reliance’s board and said he will spend the next five years of his chairmanship preparing them to take charge of the conglomerate’s transformation into a digital, consumer and green energy behemoth.

It’s all part of an effort to avoid repeating the tumultuous split that roiled the first family of corporate India. More than a decade ago Reliance’s founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, died without a will or a clear leadership transition, stirring a bitter feud between Mukesh and his younger brother, Anil. Reliance was eventually divided up following the intervention of their mother.

Three years ago, Ambani began including his children in major family businesses decisions, involving them in talks with Meta Platforms Inc. to secure a $5.7 billion investment. Formal roles have also been carved out for Isha, Akash and Anant in Reliance’s energy, retail, telecom and digital services arms.

Each child owns a $236 million direct ownership stake in Reliance, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. But it remains to be seen whether Ambani’s children can emulate their father’s success turning the oil-to-consumer titan into India’s biggest company by market value as the conglomerate increasingly attempts to reposition itself for the future.

Here’s what we know about the next generation trio:

Isha Ambani

With an MBA from Stanford University and experience working at McKinsey & Co., Ambani’s 31-year-old daughter Isha leads the conglomerate’s retail business, driving its expansion and the acquisition of brands, including the once largely defunct and nostalgia-tinged Campa Cola soda brand that was the market leader in India’s socialist era.

In 2019, Ambani credited the idea of launching Reliance Jio Infocomm to Isha, who complained about slow Internet speeds at the family’s Mumbai residence when she was home from her earlier studies at Yale University. Earlier this year, Isha was also involved in opening a swanky Mumbai theater and arts center named after her mother.

Isha is married to Anand Piramal, the son of Indian billionaire Ajay Piramal, whose interests range from pharmaceuticals to real estate. Their 2018 wedding was a spectacular tour-de-force, with performances and guests including Beyoncé, Shah Rukh Khan and Hillary Clinton. They welcomed twins to their family in November last year.

Akash Ambani

The twin-brother of Isha was elevated as chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm in June last year, taking the helm after his father stepped down. Soft spoken Akash holds an economics bachelor degree from Brown University and has served as a director on the board of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. since October 2014.

Along with his mother Nita, Akash helps manage the family’s Indian Premier League cricket team, featuring in the 2019 Netflix Inc. documentary series Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians. He married Shloka Mehta — the daughter of a wealthy diamond businessman — in another no-expenses spared A-list celebration in 2019. They have two children.

Anant Ambani

Anant, 28, like his brother has a bachelor degree from Brown University, and is closely associated with the conglomerate’s renewable energy transition. Anant has been a director on the boards of Jio Platforms since March 2020, Reliance Retail Ventures since May 2022 and Reliance New Energy Ltd and Reliance New Solar Energy Ltd since June 2021. He also serves on the board of Reliance Foundation charity.

Last year, his father said Anant had joined Reliance’s new energy business “with great zeal,” adding that “he is spending most of his time in Jamnagar,” referring to the company’s petrochemicals complex in western India. In January, Anant celebrated his engagement to Radhika Merchant at a grand event at the Ambani’s towering residential complex in one of Mumbai’s poshest districts.

–With assistance from Alexander Sazonov.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)