Ambani brothers directed to take mother's help, again

The Bombay High Court, while pronouncing the verdict on the gas dispute on Monday, advised the Ambani brothers for the second time to settle their row in consultation with their mother.

An executive with Anil Ambani’s camp said: “In case the Mukesh Ambani group fails to agree with the terms and conditions of the new gas sale agreement, we will request Kokilaben to intervene in the matter, as requested by the court.”

In RIL’s case, an executive with the company said the order is not different from the earlier single-bench judgment, but he also added that the Mukesh Ambani camp will consider approaching the Supreme Court to protect the interests of shareholders.

“As it is more a company issue rather than a family matter, the meeting with Kokilaben need not be hyped,” he pointed out.

In August last year, the Bombay High Court had advised the Ambani brothers to seek the help of their mother to mend differences and were given four months’ time. To this, the RNRL counsel said Anil Ambani was ready to renegotiate with his brother Mukesh. But they failed to reach an agreement within the stipulated time frame.

Similarly, both the groups were to meet for settling the row over the merger of Anil’s Reliance Communication (RCom) with South African telecom giant MTN in mid-2008. That time, Mukesh had claimed right of first refusal (RoFR) for the shares of RCom. Following this, the proposed talks between the groups did not happen and RCom called off the deal.

Interestingly, US magazine Time had come up with an advice for the billionaire brothers three months ago. Ahead of finalising its list of 100 most influential people in the world, Time had advised one of the probables Mukesh Ambani, to settle his spat with younger sibling Anil over a ‘pillow fight’ — using pillows stuffed with $1,000 bills.

Many times, the stocks of both group companies shot through the roof on rumours of a settlement between the brothers. The man who helped broker the demerger of the Reliance empire in 2005, K V Kamath, was rumoured to be playing mediator again in the fight. Both the group officials denied such moves on every occasion.

According to legal sources, the Ambani brothers are yet to sort at least a dozen issues even four years after splitting the Reliance business empire. The unresolved issues include claim over properties, such as a building in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), a property in Mehrauli on the Delhi-Gurgaon highway, the Richmond Road property in Bangalore and some residential flats occupied by employees of both groups, in addition to the fight over shares of some companies which formed a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group after the division of assets in June 2005.