reliance group

As you probably know the final set of hearings in the Reliance gas dispute have begun. The first set of hearings began this past week .No verdict is expected in the immediate future. It will take a few weeks for the arguments, counter arguments and deliberations by the three member Supreme Court bench itself. Remember that there are three parties in this case-RIL, RNRL and the government itself. One aspect remains-this is definitely the last leg of the long running irritating feud. The battle of the billionaires will have an impact on the two companies that the two directly represent in this case. This case is paramount to the future of memorandums between two companies, if they are legally binding or not. In the short to medium term here is the trade side for both RIL and RNRL.

After a private meeting with officials of the Finance Ministry yesterday, Anil Ambani the Chairman of the R-ADAG group walked calmly into his car flashing a silent grin at the peering eyes of the media. At first the conclusion reached was that this was a routine meeting regarding the gas dispute that he is fighting with his elder brother Mukesh in the Supreme Court. As we now know, this is false. Anil Ambani is now trying to put out a fire that has engulfed his telecom company Reliance Communications (RCOM). One factor has however remained the same; this latest issue promises to become yet another brother vs. brother fight.

One would think that for the amount of money that the Ambani brothers have they’d at least be happy. We’re talking about two men who are annually listed among the top ten richest people in the world.Yet every single time one brother gets a slight advantage; the other one simply can’t wait to ruin the other’s happiness. This sibling rivalry has unfortunately turned out into one big ego brawl between Mukesh and Anil Ambani.

RIL’s loss in the Bombay High Court regarding the sale of gas from the KG Basin to RNRL was expected to stay that way. But the elder Ambani has dragged the matter to the Supreme Court. The matter came up for hearing today and judging by the way this is turning out, Corporate India is set to witness a no holds barred street fight between the elder Mukesh and the younger Ambani.

The big piece of news emanating from India’s corporate world this past weekend has been the merger of two companies under the Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Group. The news broke this past Friday, developed over Saturday and Sunday and was a done deal by the time the weekend was over. In every sense the affair has been handled in true Reliance style – quickly, efficiently and without making too much of a fuss. The integration of Reliance Petroleum Limited into Reliance Industries is being handled with a lot of care. Considering the ease with which Reliance has started to pull this off has been commendable.

A recession in America and the prospect of facing one here in India has many companies changing their plans. Many companies in the manufacturing sector have either shut shop, sold out or gone bust. The situation in the services industry isn’t as dire but it’s still pretty serious. The only job that is safe in the midst of the global economic crisis is a government job or one in a public sector company. In the Indian private sector job cuts are happening and no company is immune to it not even India’s biggest private sector companies under the Reliance Group.

The Indian DTH market is going to get Bigger with the country’s largest mobile services company Airtel ready to launch their own DTH service. This will be the second high profile launch in the DTH market after the Reliance Group led by Anil Ambani launched their Big TV DTH services just a few months ago. The still developing Indian DTH market is unique in terms of quality and price, thus it throws up unique challenges. But in less than five years it is expected to enter 28 million homes across the country. Airtel wants to be ready for the DTH boom and this is the right time to enter the market.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon while every other person was resting or taking an afternoon nap, most of India’s business community had its eyes set on Reliance Industries’ Corporate Park in Mumbai. As the chairman Mukesh Ambani held up a bottle of something dirty, sludgy and green, a reassuring calm spread across the room. No outsider could ever comprehend the wonderment at this strange colored liquid but those who knew what it was were fully smiling from ear to ear.

This was the liquid that Reliance had been searching for from the past six years. Deep in The Bay Of Bengal a team of scientists, engineers and servicemen had toiled away braving everything from the uncertain weather to the prospect of not finding anything. So when Mukesh Ambani formally announced that his company had struck crude oil 8000 feet under the sea, India’s business community rejoiced and so did the people.

In what is an unprecedented development for Indian corporations and world film production a historic and possibly ground breaking deal between Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group and Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks studio has now been completed. What makes this deal all the more important for India Inc. is the fact that it paves the way for similar Indian business houses to aggressively pursue film and entertainment avenues in addition to the IT, Manufacturing and conventional companies Indian businesses have always been known to be interested in.

So if you happen to encounter an Indian character in DreamWorks’ Shrek films in future, don’t be surprised!

The Indian acquisition story has made yet another interesting turn. After Infosys and ONGC we are now looking at two significant buys by another Indian company. News that the Anil Dhirubai Ambani wing of Reliance’s formidable fleet has set its sights on ace director Steven Spielberg’s 2.4 Billion Dollar movie company Dreamworks has been around for the past few weeks. But a recent story that the group is also interested in buying the English football club Newcastle United indicates that the younger Ambani has no qualms about entering into unchartered territories.