Ambani sets stage for succession, Anant debuts at Reliance AGM

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) Exactly three years after he first laid bare succession plan at India's most valuable company, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Friday appeared to be creating space for the eventual take of businesses by his three children.

At the annual shareholders' meeting of Reliance Industries, Ambani gave the floor to twins Akash and Isha, 33, to present business plan for telecom and retail segments, respectively.

The two had been present at previous AGMs but this was the first time they went into business detailing rather than just give demonstration of technology or devices on the anvil.

The youngest, Anant, 30, who in May was appointed as executive director on the board of Reliance -- the first among the siblings -- made his debut at the shareholder meet, delivering a business update that hinted at a larger role for him than previously outlined.

On August 29, 2022, Mukesh Ambani had listed Akash taking leadership role at Jio and Isha at Retail. Anant, he said, had "joined our new energy business with great zeal".

But on Friday, when Anant took stage, he presented business review and plans for the traditional cash cow oil-to-chemicals business, oil and gas exploration and production segment and the new energy vertical.

Reliance has three broad businesses -- oil refining and petrochemicals, retail, and digital services that include telecom. Retail and digital services are housed in separate wholly owned subsidiaries -- Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL).

The oil-to-chemical, or O2C, business is a functional division of Reliance. The new energy business that spans solar, battery and hydrogen investments is also with the parent firm.

"At Reliance, we believe that institutional longevity and perpetual growth are guaranteed only by constant self-renewal. This demands four elements -- a deep bench of capable leadership at all levels, unshakable core values, a resilient work culture, a never-changing commitment to the original purpose of the organisation," Mukesh Ambani said on Friday. "We are strengthening all four - deliberately and decisively." He termed his children getting deeply involved into business as an evolution of next-generation leaders.

"A major milestone in this journey has been the evolution of our next-generation leaders -- Isha, Akash, and Anant -- who have now completed two transformative years on the Board of Reliance Industries," he said.

"Fully embedded in operations and decision-making, they are shaping our businesses with energy, conviction, and clarity of purpose." Under the mentorship of senior leaders and independent directors, they are becoming the kind of leaders this era demands -- agile, accountable, ambitious, empathetic, and consultative.

"They are supported by hundreds of young leaders in their 30s and 40s, with domain expertise and the same passion and ambition that built Reliance." He had special words of appreciation for all three after their respective presentations.

In conclusion, he said the new energy business will be a major driver of growth for many decades, with the potential to become as big as O2C business in the next 5-7 years. "In scale, ambition, and impact, it will surpass everything Reliance has done so far. It will create unprecedented, perpetual value for both India and Reliance." Jio, he said, is the largest data company globally. "All of Jio's 500 million -- and growing -- subscribers will move to 5G and eventually 6G by 2030. Jio's home and enterprise digital services businesses are growing at phenomenal speed." Reliance Retail, which serves over 300 million Indians every month, has in just five years leap-frogged from the top-100 to the top-25 global retailers, and will continue to grow in both B2B and B2C spaces. "I can clearly see its revenues grow multifold in the coming years." Mukesh Ambani, 68, hasnt said when he will completely handover the reins of the company to his children but a couple of years back he was reappointed chairman and managing director of Reliance for a term till August 2028.

In June 2022, Akash was made the chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, a subsidiary of Jio Platforms. Jio Infocomm is the firm that holds telecom licences but Mukesh Ambani continues to be the chairman of Jio Platforms, the firm in which global technology giants like Google and Facebook owner Meta have invested.

The senior Ambani also continues to head RRVL.

Isha is married to Anand Piramal (son of Piramal Group's Ajay and Swati Piramal).

Akash and Isha have been on the boards of RRVL -- the company that operates supermarkets offering consumer electronics, food and grocery, fashion, jewellery, footwear, and clothing, as well as online retail venture JioMart -- and digital arm Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) since October 2014.

Anant, too, was recently inducted as a director on RRVL. He has been a director on JPL since May 2020.

The succession plan outlines a clear transfer of wealth by the tycoon, who was embroiled in a bitter inheritance dispute with his younger brother after their father died in 2002 without a will.

Ambani, whose net worth is about USD 99 billion, continues to be the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. His wife Nita, 62, looks after the philanthropy work of Reliance.

As per the company filings, the Ambani family's current stake in Reliance has risen to 50.6 per cent from 47.27 per cent in March 2019.

Since 2019, Mukesh Ambani has been slowly overhauling the top-heavy hierarchy at Reliance to improve governance in line with global standards. He sold a 32.97 per cent stake in Jio Platforms to the likes of Google, Facebook and other venture capitals and got a clutch of foreign investors in the retail venture. He has also got global investors in retail business. PTI ANZ TRB TRB TRB