Firstpost
  • Home
  • Video Shows
    Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
  • World
    US News
  • Explainers
  • News
    India Opinion Cricket Tech Entertainment Sports Health Photostories
  • Asia Cup 2025
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
Trending:
  • Nepal protests
  • Nepal Protests Live
  • Vice-presidential elections
  • iPhone 17
  • IND vs PAK cricket
  • Israel-Hamas war
fp-logo
Mukesh Ambani offers gentle lesson to Anil in brotherly bailout, shows he's worthy inheritor of Dhirubhai legacy
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
  • Home
  • Business
  • Mukesh Ambani offers gentle lesson to Anil in brotherly bailout, shows he's worthy inheritor of Dhirubhai legacy

Mukesh Ambani offers gentle lesson to Anil in brotherly bailout, shows he's worthy inheritor of Dhirubhai legacy

Madhavan Narayanan • March 25, 2019, 12:36:06 IST
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter

Reliance Communications shares zoomed after Mukesh Ambani’s brotherly deal, showing that blessings can visibly enhance net worth where family goodwill meets public companies.

Advertisement
Subscribe Join Us
Add as a preferred source on Google
Prefer
Firstpost
On
Google
Mukesh Ambani offers gentle lesson to Anil in brotherly bailout, shows he's worthy inheritor of Dhirubhai legacy

In British writer Jeffrey Archer’s best-seller, Kane and Abel, it turns out somewhere that William Kane, the worthy inheritor challenged by a self-made Polish immigrant in a storied American rivalry, is actually a secret benefactor for Abel Rosnovski in a gripping tale full of twists and turns. Mukesh Ambani's rescue act to help his brother Anil evade jail after a courtroom battle in a saga of loans and business bets gone wrong is reminiscent of that episode in the novel. Perhaps in a less dramatic way but more interesting. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Rs 453 crore is not a big sum for the elder son of Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani. As the leading inheritor of the textiles-to-telecom conglomeration with an estimated personal worth of $54 billion, the chairman of Reliance Industries loses more money on paper on a bad hair day for the Sensex. But, in eliciting a public note of gratitude from his impetuous younger sibling, he has set India’s imagination on fire on what could happen when a closely knit family whose bonds were built in a Bombay chawl tenement grows tentacles to become India’s most valued private company by market value. All we need perhaps is a visually pleasing helicopter shot to make the brothers meet in a moment of reconciliation in front of a happy mother to say, “Take that, Bollywood!” [caption id=“attachment_6284341” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] ![Anil Ambani with brother Mukesh Ambani. News18](https://images.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Anil-Ambani-with-brother-Mukesh-Ambani.-News18.jpeg) File image of Mukesh Ambani with brother Anil. News18[/caption] Reliance Communications shares zoomed after the brotherly deal, showing that blessings can visibly enhance net worth where family goodwill meets public companies. Questions still need to be patiently answered: Why does Anil, who is still a Forbes list dollar billionaire with an estimated personal worth of Rs 13,800 crore, need this amount so badly in a private deal to pay off Ericsson for money owned in a Reliance Communications contract that went awry? What are the official contours of the bailout deal, just for the record? What went on behind the scenes? Why did not Mukesh, who went on to found India’s hottest telecom network in Reliance Jio after relinquishing the original telecom business he built to his brother in a bitter family division of inherited assets, simply acquire some of those RCom assets in a fire sale? What happens to the slew of other assets that Anil Ambani is supposed to own through holdings in companies involved in everything from mutual funds to electricity generation? Where does all this leave the younger Ambani’s nationally controversial Reliance Defence venture? Chartered accountants or financial analysts may spoil the party for fiction writers by making it all less dramatic but it appears that Mukesh Ambani does not confuse personal affections with corporate governance. He has done his corporate dealings based on business logic but seems to have shown maturity and financial magnanimity in a big brother way as he helped his younger sibling in a personal role. As traders say in their native Gujarat: “Business is business.” This much is clear. The effervescent, go-for-broke style of Anil Ambani contrasts the patient project management approach of Mukesh, who acts more like a custodian carefully balancing the interests of customers, shareholders, bankers, policy makers and employees in a complex web of enterprises. In that sense, he is clearly the worthy inheritor of the legacy of the late Dhirubhai, who had a knack for building an array of businesses and managing varied economic and political interests linked to his phenomenal rise in the 1980s. Anil, as the archetypal young man in a hurry, may take solace from the fact that his Reliance Entertainment co-produced an Oscar winner in Steven Spielberg’s biopic, Lincoln. Mukesh’s franchises now extend to cricket and football, but art is something else.

When historians look back, Dhirubhai may go down, despite the criticism he faced in political circles for his proximity to powerful leaders and bureaucrats, as a pioneer in wealth creation in India based on a culture of shareholder value. Mukesh has taken the Reliance conglomeration to the Digital Age, but the passion for shareholder value remains.

Speculation is rife that RCom may get help from Mukesh. Anil Ambani has still a big mess to clear in building the new ventures that he started after the painful division of family assets and in juggling what remains of the ones he inherited. It is not clear if he would seek advice from the elder sibling on all that. But he could well do with some. (The writer is a senior journalist and commentator. He tweets as @madversity) (Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost)

Tags
Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani Corporate governance Mutual Funds Anil Ambani Reliance Communications RCom Ericsson Dhirubhai Ambani telecom network Steven Spielberg Reliance Defence
End of Article
Latest News
Find us on YouTube
Subscribe
End of Article

Impact Shorts

Tata Harrier EV vs Mahindra XEV 9e: Design and road presence compared

Tata Harrier EV vs Mahindra XEV 9e: Design and road presence compared

The Tata Harrier EV and Mahindra XEV 9e are new electric SUVs in India. The Harrier EV has a modern, familiar design, while the XEV 9e features a bold, striking look. They cater to different preferences: the Harrier EV for subtle elegance and the XEV 9e for expressive ruggedness.

More Impact Shorts

Top Stories

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Top Shows

Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
Latest News About Firstpost
Most Searched Categories
  • Web Stories
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • IPL 2025
NETWORK18 SITES
  • News18
  • Money Control
  • CNBC TV18
  • Forbes India
  • Advertise with us
  • Sitemap
Firstpost Logo

is on YouTube

Subscribe Now

Copyright @ 2024. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved

About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Terms Of Use
Home Video Shorts Live TV