What weekend? Sunday is big business for Anil

Forget weekends. It is business and days of big announcements on Sundays for industrialist Anil Ambani, contrary to golf and get-togethers for the rest of the corporate world.

While June 18, 2005 — the day of separation for Anil from Mukesh Ambani with the division of the Reliance empire — was a Saturday, it was a Sunday five years later on May 23, 2010, when he announced a patch-up with his elder brother, burying their contentious non-compete agreements.

Since then, there has hardly been a Sunday when he did not pull out his top lieutenants and officials from the comfort of their homes to do business and engage the media for a big exposure in Monday newspapers before the stock markets commence trading for the new week — a trend that group officials feel is a legacy from the days of his father, Dhirubhai.

Even during the bitter fight with Mukesh, before and after the family settlement, invariably big news came out from ADAG on Sundays — based on the belief that a lean business day could help get better space in the media.

Commenting on the trend, brokerage firm SMC Global Vice- President Rajesh Jain, said: “The group probably tries to play safe, so that the announcement does not impact the stock prices with a sudden jerk.”

“Announcements on a market holiday usually are considered safe, as traders get time to absorb the under-currents of the announcements and then react when the market opens on the next day,” he added. Today, again a Sunday, save the boards of two Anil Ambani group companies, Reliance Power and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd, meet in Mumbai to decide on their merger. On the previous Sunday, June 27, the group announced a big bang Rs 50,000-crore merger deal of RCom’s tower assets with GTL Infra to create the world’s largest telecom tower firm. Earlier, on June 20, 2010, the Anil Ambani group announced a joint venture between Reliance Broadcast Network with US media giant CBS for capturing the television market in the country.

In the same month, RCom announced on June 6, again a Sunday, that the company was looking for buyers to purchase a 26 per cent stake in the company.

Exactly a week before, Anil had gone to Tirupati on May 30, staying en route at Mukesh’s guest house, to seek the deity’s blessings for the peace that was ushered in between the two brothers after their years-long bitter rivalry. The decision for his group’s only IPO, that of Reliance Power, was also taken on a Sunday — September 30, 2007.

As part of the efforts to revive R-Power shares, which tanked despite being India’s biggest ever IPO at over Rs 11,500 crore, Anil Ambani again announced on a Sunday (February 25, 2008) the issue of free bonus shares. It was again a Sunday (May 9, 2010) when Anil wrote a morale-boosting letter to his all group employees post the Supreme Court judgment that ruled against RNRL’s petition to get gas from RIL under a family agreement. In the midst of a long legal fight over gas, on yet another Sunday (October 11, 2009), Anil made a passionate appeal for peace with Mukesh, though the very same day, RIL said the litigation was not a family matter.