Mukesh Ambani, billionaire and chairman of India’s most valuable company ‘Reliance’, on Monday revealed his succession plans. He named his children as his successors – twins Akash and Isha will now head the telecom and retail leadership, while the youngest son will head the Anant Energy unit. He did however assure that he was not retiring yet, and would “continue to provide practical leadership as before”.
At Reliance Industries Limited’s annual shareholders’ meeting, he said the robust architecture they announced would ensure that the firm “remains a united, well-integrated and secure entity, even as it develops existing businesses”. and add new growth engines.”
Reliance has three broad businesses – oil refining and petrochemicals, retail and digital services including telecommunications. Retail and digital services are housed in separate wholly owned subsidiaries – Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL).
The oil-to-chemicals or O2C business is a functional division of Reliance. The new energy business is also with the parent company.
Like his business, the 65-year-old Ambani also has three children – twins Akash and Isha, and youngest son Anant.
“Akash and Isha have taken leadership roles in Jio and Retail respectively. They have been passionately involved in our consumer businesses since inception,” he added. “Anant is also passionately involved in our new energy business. In fact, he is spending most of his time in Jamnagar.”
So far, only Akash has been made the functional head of a company, while the other two are on the board.
“All three have completely inherited the mindset of our founder (Dhirubhai). They are amongst the first in a young team of leaders and professionals who are already doing amazing work at Reliance. Of course, all of them are supported by us. On a daily basis advice is being given to senior leaders including me and the board of directors,” he said.
In June, 30-year-old Akash was made the chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, a subsidiary of Jio Platforms. Jio Infocomm is the firm that holds telecom licenses but Mukesh Ambabi remains the chairman of Jio Platforms, the firm in which global technology giants like Google and Facebook owner Meta have invested.
Senior Ambani also continues to head RRVL.
At the AGM on Monday, Ambani introduced Isha as the retail business leader as he invited her to give a presentation on integration of the e-commerce unit with WhatsApp and foray into FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods).
Later, he said the 26-year-old has joined the new energy business with investments in infinite solar, battery and hydrogen.
Isha is married to Anand Piramal (son of Ajay and Swati Piramal of Piramal Group).
Akash and Isha have been on the board of RRVL – the company that operates supermarkets offering consumer electronics, food and grocery,
Online retail venture JioMart – and digital arm Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), along with fashion, jewellery, footwear and clothing since October 2014.
Anant has recently been inducted as Director in RRVL. He is the director of JPL since May 2020.
The three businesses of Reliance are almost equal in size. While both Akash and Isha have been active in the group’s new-age businesses in retail and telecommunications, Anant is looking after Reliance’s renewable energy as a director.
The announcement underlines the apparent transfer of wealth by the 65-year-old tycoon, who was embroiled in a bitter inheritance dispute with his younger brother without a will after his father’s death in 2002.
Ambani, who has a net worth of over USD 94 billion, continues to be the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. His wife Neeta, 59, is also on the board of Reliance.
According to the company’s filings, the Ambani family’s current stake in Reliance has increased to 50.6 per cent from 47.27 per cent in March 2019.
Ambani first spoke about succession planning on Reliance Family Day, which is the birth anniversary of group founder Dhirubhai Ambani, on December 28 last year. Reliance, he had said, “is now in the process of effecting a significant leadership change”.
Earlier at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in June 2021, he had indicated that his children would now have a prominent place in the family’s vast empire. He had said: “I have no doubt that the next generation of Reliance leaders under the leadership of Isha, Akash and Anant will further enrich this precious legacy.”
The succession plan comes at a time when Reliance is in the midst of a very costly switch to clean fuels by investing in the entire value chain of solar, batteries and hydrogen.
Just as steady cash flows from oil refining and petrochemicals made it possible for Reliance to start telecommunications from scratch, profits from digital businesses and retail allowed it to replace hydrocarbons, the traditional source of wealth, with green energy over the next decade. can give.
Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, also known as Dhirubhai Ambani, founded Reliance in 1973. He led the expansion of the family business from textiles to oil to telecommunications, but the family plunged into chaos after his sudden death in 2002.
Differences between Mukesh and his younger brother Anil escalated and after three years of bitter war, mother Kokilaben divided Reliance’s assets in 2005. Mukesh got the refining, petrochemicals, oil and gas and textile businesses, while Anil was put in charge of the telecommunications, asset management, entertainment and power generation businesses.
Over the years, Mukesh Ambani replaced Reliance with a re-entry into the telecommunications business, as well as retail sales and clean energy, while Anil Ambani’s business empire crumbled.
Since 2019, Mukesh Ambani has been gradually changing the top-heavy hierarchy at Reliance to improve governance in line with global standards. He sold 32.97 per cent stake in Jio Platforms to Google, Facebook and other venture capital and got a slew of foreign investors in the retail venture.