INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
telecommunications revolution in India that propelled his petrochemicals conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd
into the $100 billion club
His personal fortune has swelled to $43.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, $5.2 billion ahead of Ma and just ahead of
businesses suffering legal and liquidity challenges that roiled stocks, cutting his personal fortune by almost half to $1.5 billion,
according to the index.
Neither the brothers nor their groups responded to questions for this story regarding their wealth or business
fortunes began 16 years ago, when their rags-to-riches father Dhirubhai Ambani, whose life inspired a Bollywood film, died of a stroke
The industrialist, who started out as a gas-station attendant in Yemen, had built a vast business empire, financing massive factories by
selling so many shares to small investors that stockholder meetings had to be held in a football stadium.
A feud between his two sons
Mukesh got control of the flagship oil refining and petrochemicals, while Anil got the newer businesses such as power generation and
He also took over the telecoms unit, which under Mukesh had expanded aggressively by bundling phones with mobile connections at throwaway
prices.
Telecoms lureAt the time, the wireless division seemed to give Anil some of the more promising opportunities
until the agreement was scrapped in 2010
Mukesh quickly returned, pumping in more than 2.5 trillion rupees ($34 billion) over the next seven years to build a speedier 4G wireless
Jio also gave Mukesh the chance to forge his own legacy beyond the shadow of the businesses he had inherited, he said
with little sign of a return at first.
Price warWhen it came in 2016, the impact was dramatic
By July this year, less than two years after starting the service, Jio had signed up 227 million users and was making a profit
Cash flow from the business, together with a blue-chip rating gave Reliance Industries access to a large pool of cheap capital
Managers.
Meanwhile, Anil has been selling assets to quell investor concerns around the indebtedness of some of his companies that
a cash cow like the oil refinery to finance growth
Instead, like other businesses in India and elsewhere, many of his companies increased debt.
The borrowing spree by local companies caused
saw the worst decline this year, losing 75 percent
Bought in 2015 as part of his bet on defense as the next engine of growth, the warship and submarine maker has proven hard to turn
for $8.7 billion of French warplanes
20 statement, Anil and his company denied allegations from opposition lawmakers that the deal unfairly benefited his company, saying the
group, has failed to stem a decade of overall decline in its shares since its record IPO in 2008, just as the global financial crisis
Last month, Rcom sold its 178,000 kilometer fiber-optic network for 30 billion rupees as part of a disposal that will see it divest of
to an out-of-court settlement.
Bloomberg News is currently defending litigation brought by Anil Ambani and Reliance Communications in
connection with previous Bloomberg reporting.
The sale of RCom assets to Jio brings the saga of the two brothers full circle and sets the
the firm toward real estate
note of caution about another ambitious expansion
The prospect of a multi-fold rise in verification costs for the telecom company, together with a slump in the rupee and rising oil prices
head of the Reliance Foundation, for a very different reason
Both their eldest son and daughter got engaged this year, putting the Mumbai and Bollywood elite on high alert for two epic Indian weddings
disappointed.
The saga continues.
