Billionaire Mukesh Ambani has announced that the succession plan for Reliance Industries is “almost complete,” with his children Akash, Isha, and Anant now leading key business verticals, signalling a significant leadership transition for India’s most valuable company.
Photograph: ANI Photo
Key Points
- Mukesh Ambani confirmed the generational transfer of day-to-day management at Reliance Industries to his children, Akash, Isha, and Anant, is nearing completion.
- Akash Ambani leads technology businesses (Jio), Isha Ambani heads consumer businesses (Retail), and Anant Ambani is in charge of energy businesses, including new energy.
- Ambani praised his children’s leadership, stating they will drive the conglomerate’s next phase of growth across telecommunications, retail, digital services, and new energy.
- The succession plan aims to ensure the company’s future is in capable hands, with 500 young leaders also being groomed to support the next generation.
- Mukesh Ambani continues as chairman and managing director, with his wife Nita overseeing philanthropy, as the family’s stake in Reliance has risen to 50.6 per cent.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Friday said the transfer of day-to-day management responsibilities at his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries to his children is “almost complete”, marking the final stages of a closely watched succession process at India’s most valuable company.
Speaking at the annual shareholders meeting, Ambani said Akash, Isha and Anant are now leading key businesses across the group and will drive the conglomerate’s next phase of growth, including major initiatives in telecommunications, retail, digital services and new energy.
Generational Transfer Underway
Ambani, 69, lavished praise on his three children as he said the “generational transfer of day-to-day management at Reliance is almost complete”, signalling that the succession process at India’s largest conglomerate has entered its final phase.
“The future of your company is not only in safe hands, but in hands that will take Reliance to far greater heights,” he told shareholders.
Just like the previous year, he gave the floor to twins Akash and Isha, 34, to present a business plan for the telecom and retail segments, respectively.
Youngest, Anant, 31, who in May last year was appointed as executive director on the board of Reliance — the first among the siblings — for a second year in a row, delivered a business update for the energy segment.
A Smooth Transition for a Diversifying Conglomerate
Succession has long been one of the most closely watched issues at Reliance. Ambani, who joined the company’s board in 1977 at the age of 20, assumed control of the conglomerate following the death of founder Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002.
He, however, had a protracted dispute over control of the conglomerate with his younger brother, as their father did not leave a will.
For investors, the leadership transition carries added significance as Reliance evolves from a traditional oil-and-petrochemicals group into a consumer, technology and clean-energy powerhouse, with billions of dollars earmarked for digital services, retail and renewable energy.
“Isha, Akash, and Anant have now completed three transformative years on the Board of Reliance Industries. Isha leads consumer businesses. Akash leads technology businesses. Anant leads the energy businesses,” he said.
“While leading individual business verticals, they are simultaneously working towards the holistic growth of everything under the Reliance ecosystem.
“They are three bodies, one soul. Their soul is Reliance. One single indivisible Reliance, now and forever.”
Mentoring the Next Generation
Asia’s second-richest man said that while he continues to provide hands-on leadership, as many as 500 young leaders in their 30s and 40s have been groomed in various businesses to assist his three children, “They bring top-notch domain expertise, technological fluency, and the first generation’s passion to surpass expectations.
“They are being mentored by seniors to ensure that the institutional culture of Reliance is upheld, and the bar is continually raised.”
After Akash, who has been working at Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd since 2014, presented a digital business plan, Ambani said, “Splendid Akash.”
“I can see the passion, dedication and hard work you and your team are putting into this mission.
“When work is done with such devotion, hard work becomes heart work.
“I am confident that this heart work will make Jio’s second decade even more scintillating, more purposeful and more transformational,” he said.
On his daughter’s retail plan, he said, “That was truly impressive, Isha.”
“Let us applaud Isha and the entire retail and consumer product teams for what they have built and for the clarity and courage with which they intend to build the next phase of Reliance Retail,” he said.
After the youngest detailed business plan for the core oil refining and petrochemicals as well as new energy business, Ambani said, “Well done Anant.”
Roles and Responsibilities
In 2022, Ambani listed Akash taking leadership roles at Jio and Isha at Retail. Anant, he had said, “joined our new energy business with great zeal”.
Last year, Anant presented a business review and plans for the traditional cash cow oil-to-chemicals business, the oil and gas exploration and production segment and the new energy vertical. He continued with that in this year’s AGM as well.
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. Akash also gave a broad overview of Reliance’s media business.
Ambani, who is the chairman and managing director of Reliance, hasn’t said when he will completely hand over the reins of the company to his children.
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 of 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 $89 billion, continues to be the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd.
His wife, Nita, 63, 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 capitalists and got a clutch of foreign investors in the retail venture. He has also got global investors in the retail business.
