Shareholders ask Ambani for acche din

Ambani says rewarding shareholders suitably on top of his mind

It was the maiden year for Nita Ambani — a non-executive director on Reliance Industries' board and wife of Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries — to share the dais with her husband.

So it was obvious that Nita would have attracted a fair share of attention. Dressed in a pretty pink chudidaar, she was showered with compliments by the shareholders while Ambani smiled away. But shareholders at the annual jamboree of RIL made sure Ambani did not feel left out. With an array of suggestions and requests, they kept Ambani and his board in rapt attention.

One shareholder suggested that with RIL shares not seeing any uptick in the past seven years, Ambani should launch a nation-wide survey to find out what is ailing the share price of RIL. "You should educate shareholders on this, so that they don't sell their shares at a wrong time and wrong price," suggested a shareholder. Ambani nodded.  Another shareholder suggested RIL should start the Jio services with 90 per cent reduction in the broadband prices and then it can find some other way of revenue generation from other sources. The board members laughed it out loud.

A usual cry from the shareholders was with regard to increased dividend and bonus payout. "Dividend is very less. Please make sure you do not give us a chance to ask for more next time. Let your shareholders also have acche din," said Asha Lata Maheshwari, another shareholder.

Ambani said post the completion of investment cycle, the company will reward shareholders suitably. "We want to assure you that all your requests (of bonus, dividends and buybacks) are on top our our mind and we will consider them," said Ambani. While Ambani was listening patiently to everyone, he briefly lost his cool when a shareholder, Anil Kumar Poddar, said he would talk only if he was provided with half-an-hour to speak. Ambani retorted, "You cannot dictate. You are only one shareholder. If you want to sit, you can sit down. All shareholders are equal and there is democracy."