Anil Ambani Explained

Anil D Ambani
Birth Date:4 June 1959[1]
Birth Place:Bombay, Bombay State, India
Occupation:Businessman
Office2:Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Constituency2:Rajasthan
Children:2

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (born 4 June 1959) is an Indian businessman, chairman and managing director of Reliance Group (a.k.a. Reliance ADA Group). The Reliance Group was created in July 2006 following a demerger from Reliance Industries Limited. He led several stocks listed corporations including Reliance Capital,[2] Reliance Infrastructure,[3] Reliance Power and Reliance Communications.[4]

Ambani, once the sixth richest person in the world, declared bankruptcy before a UK court in February 2020.[5] He served in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India from Uttar Pradesh as an Independent MP between 2004 and 2006.[6] [7]

Life and education

Anil Ambani is the youngest son of the founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirubhai Ambani and his mother Kokilaben Ambani. Ambani has said that his father would lead the brothers on "incentive-oriented outings" where they would be rewarded with a box of mangoes for a 10-km (6 mile) hike, but also punished them for acting out in front of guests.[8] He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Kishinchand Chellaram College and received a Master in Business Administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1983.[9]

Business career

Ambani's father Dhirubhai died in 2002 without leaving a clear succession plan. After bickering between Anil and his brother Mukesh, their mother Kokilaben mediated and split the family-owned businesses between the two brothers.[10]

Anil Ambani received parts of Reliance Group with interests in telecom, entertainment, financial services, power and infrastructure.[11] Ambani is also credited with India's largest IPO, that of Reliance Power, which in 2008 was subscribed in less than 60 seconds, the fastest in the history of Indian capital markets to date.[12]

In 2005 Ambani made his debut in the entertainment industry with an acquisition of a majority stake in Adlabs Films, a company with interests in film processing, production, exhibition and digital cinema. The company was renamed Reliance MediaWorks in 2009.[13] [14] [15] In 2008 a joint venture worth US$1.2 billion with Steven Spielberg's production company DreamWorks cast Ambani's entertainment business on to a global platform.[16] He has contributed to the production of several Spielberg films, including the Academy Award-winning Lincoln.[17] [18]

Ambani gained notoriety as one of the fastest destroyers of shareholder wealth in the last 100 years with the combined group market cap declining by 90% since the formation of the Reliance ADA Group.[19] [20]

In early 2019, a court in Mumbai held Ambani in criminal contempt for non-payment of personally guaranteed debt Reliance Communications owed to Swedish gear maker Ericsson. Instead of jail time, the court gave him a month to come up with the funds. At the end of the month, Ambani was bailed out by his elder brother, Mukesh Ambani.[21]

In April 2019, three ADAG Companies reached standstill agreement with Franklin Templeton after secured NCD default. This led to SEBI changing mutual fund regulation of reducing unlisted NCDs exposure to 10% and making standstill agreement void. In aftermath, FT India didn't sell the pledged securities and wound 6 debt funds affecting 300,000 investors.

In February 2020, Anil Ambani was locked in a legal battle with 3 Chinese banks. He was asked to set aside by the court which led him to make the statement that his net worth is currently zero after considering his liabilities.[22] The dispute still rages on with the UK court ordering him to pay the 3 Chinese banks to the tune of .[23] [24]

In October 2021, Anil Ambani was named in the Pandora Papers along with his brother Mukesh.[25] In January 2023, the Bombay High Court questioned the Income Tax Department's accusation of tax evasion against Anil Ambani after a petition by him challenged the decision of the notice issued by the department.[26]

Personal life

Ambani belongs to a Gujarati family which hails from the village of Chorwad near Junagadh in the Kathiawar region of Gujarat, India.[27] He is the youngest son of the legendary textile entrepreneur Dhirubhai Ambani and his wife, Smt. Kokilaben Ambani, a devoted home-maker who founded the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in suburban Mumbai. Anil is one of four children. He has an older brother, Mukesh Ambani, and two sisters, Smt. Nina Kothari (wife of late Bhadra Shyam Kothari) and Smt. Deepti Salgaocar (wife of Dattaraj Salgoncar).[28]

Anil Ambani is married to the actress Tina Munim.[29] He married her after facing much resistance from his family, due to the fact that she came from the world of fashion and glamour, and her lifestyle choices before marriage had been unconventional. Nevertheless, the couple have had a stable marriage and have two sons, Jai Anmol Ambani and Jai Anshul Ambani.[30] As of 2010, Ambani and his family reside at The Sea Wind, a 14-story building in Mumbai.[31] On 20 February 2022, Ambani's elder son, Jai Anmol, married Krisha Shah, daughter of the late Nikunj Shah, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur.[32]

Ambani is a teetotaler and a vegetarian. As an avid jogger, he also runs marathons.

Awards and recognition

Allegations of political connections

In 2018, India's principal opposition party, Indian National Congress, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of favouring Anil Ambani's defence manufacturing company over HAL, a public sector enterprise, in a fighter aircraft deal worth with French manufacturing firm Dassault. Ambani, several of whose companies are debt-ridden, has denied all charges of benefiting from crony capitalism. In factual terms, Reliance Defence stood to get just over 3 per cent of the Dassault Aviation offsets contract, contrary to the impression that it was to be the biggest beneficiary of the Rafale fighter jet deal.[40]

In a possibly related controversy, one of his businesses partly financed a French film in which former French president Francois Hollande's then-partner had acted around the same time the aircraft deal was being negotiated.[41]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Anil Ambani: One-time billionaire Anil Ambani says he's now worth nothing. The Economic Times.
  2. Web site: Reliance Capital. Reliance Capital. 17 April 2014 . 18 April 2014.
  3. Web site: Reliance Infra. Reliance Infra. 17 April 2014. 17 April 2014.
  4. Web site: Reliance Communication. Reliance Communication. 17 April 2014. 17 April 2014. 3 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190403162305/https://rcom.co.in/Rcom/personal/home/index.html. dead.
  5. News: Onetime Billionaire Says He's Now Worth Nothing. The Economic Times. 8 February 2020 .
  6. Web site: Anil Ambani to stand for Rajya Sabha . . 16 June 2004 . 21 June 2020.
  7. Web site: Anil Ambani quits as Rajya Sabha MP amid office of profit row . Outlook . 21 June 2020 . 25 March 2006.
  8. News: Altstedter . Ari . Sanjai. P.R. . Mukesh Ambani Won the World's Most Expensive Sibling Rivalry . 7 June 2020 . . 3 June 2020.
  9. Web site: Wharton Alumni Magazine: 125 Influential People and Ideas: Anil D. Ambani. wharton.upenn.edu. 7 February 2019. 16 December 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191216224840/https://www.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/125anniversaryissue/ambani.html. dead.
  10. Book: Robin Banerjee. Who Blunders and How: The Dumb Side of the Corporate World. https://books.google.com/books?id=SbWnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30. 5 August 2019. SAGE Publications. 978-93-5328-580-7. Family Business Falacy.
  11. Web site: The Ambani Achievements. Rediff.com. 7 July 2002. 16 February 2014.
  12. Web site: Anil Ambani . EXHIBIT MAGAZINE . 22 May 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150206115041/http://www.exhibitmag.com/content/anil-ambani . 6 February 2015 .
  13. News: Reliance Cap buys 51% in Adlabs for Rs 360 crore. 11 February 2015. The Economic Times. Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 1 July 2005.
  14. The Reliance-Spielberg Deal: Anil Ambani's Next Blockbuster?. Knowledge@Wharton. 2 October 2008. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. 11 February 2015.
  15. News: Adlabs Films to be renamed Reliance MediaWorks. 11 February 2015. Live Mint. HT Media. 4 September 2009.
  16. News: DreamWorks to Receive Funds From Reliance. 11 February 2015. The Wall Street Journal. News Corporation. 10 April 2012.
  17. Web site: Reliance Entertainment [in]]. IMDb. 11 February 2015.
  18. Web site: Lincoln (2012) - Company credits. IMDb. 11 February 2015.
  19. News: DCC wants TRAI to review stand on spectrum pricing, quantum. 14 June 2019. The Economic Times.
  20. Web site: Anil Ambani falls off billionaire club; equity wealth crashes from $42 billion to $0.5 billion. businesstoday.in. 17 June 2019 .
  21. News: 2019-03-19. Mukesh Ambani: India's richest man helps his brother avoid jail. en-GB. BBC News. 2022-02-11.
  22. News: One-time billionaire Anil Ambani says he's now worth nothing. The Economic Times. 2020-10-06.
  23. Web site: 2020-06-24. UK court order to pay 3 China banks: Anil Ambani denies giving any personal guarantee. 2020-10-06. The Financial Express. en-US.
  24. Web site: 2020-07-20. Mukesh vs Anil: how the Ambani brothers' wealth soared and dipped. 2022-02-11. South China Morning Post. en.
  25. News: Indian. Express. 4 October 2021. After Panama, it's Pandora: facing regulatory heat, elite Indians find new ways to ringfence wealth in secret havens. English. Indian Express. 4 October 2021.
  26. Web site: Anil Ambani case: Bombay HC asks I-T dept how Black Money Act can have retrospective effect. . . 9 January 2023 . February 22, 2023.
  27. News: Top 10 Gujarati billionaires. 2015-08-01. India TV News.
  28. Web site: Biggest secrets of Ambani family in pics. 2015-03-18. The Times of India. en. 2019-08-12.
  29. Book: Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. Subir Ghosh. Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri. GAS WARS: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis. 30 March 2014. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. 978-81-928551-3-4.
  30. Web site: Tina Ambani got a third baby. Daily News and Analysis. 18 April 2009.
  31. Web site: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani: The name says it all!. Go2BSchool. 16 July 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170728121511/http://go2bschool.com/leaders/anil-dhirubhai-ambani-the-name-says-it-all-2/. 28 July 2017.
  32. https://www.mensxp.com/entertainment/celebrities/102283-anil-ambani-son-jai-anmol-ambani-khrisha-shah-wedding-pictures.html Wedding of Jai Anmol
  33. News: Businessman of the Year 1997 . Business Standard. 20 July 2004 . Bureau . Our .
  34. Web site: Reliance Communications Ltd (RLCM.NS) . https://web.archive.org/web/20140407091847/http://in.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officerProfile?symbol=RLCM.NS&officerId=76505 . dead . 2014-04-07 . Reuters.
  35. Web site: Anil Ambani. nilacharal.com. 2 April 2014. 8 April 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140408124130/http://www.nilacharal.com/enter/celeb/ambani.asp. dead.
  36. Web site: Anil Ambani is Platts CEO of the Year. Rediff.com. 11 December 2004.
  37. Book: Business Ethics and Corporate Governance. 9788176295925. Bhatia. S. K.. 2004. Deep & Deep Publications .
  38. Web site: Wharton India Economic Forum. the-south-asian.com.
  39. Web site: Anil Ambani makes it to Asiaweek's hall of fame. Rediff.com.
  40. News: Pubby. Manu. Rafale deal: Reliance Defence to get 3% of Rs 30,000 crore offset. The Economic Times. 2020-10-06.
  41. Web site: Rafale row: Reliance Entertainment confirms it paid 1.4 million Euros for film by Hollande's partner through partner. 27 September 2018. The Indian Express.

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