MUMBAI: The bar for Mukesh Ambani to impress is rising, including on succession. India’s richest man used Monday’s annual general meeting to announce his intention to remain chair and managing director of his Reliance Industries for five more years, install his kids onto the board of the $200 billion company and pledge to mentor them.
Ambani wants to avoid the sibling feud that followed his father’s death in 2002. Planning is sensible, yet Reliance shares closed down 1.1%.
Market ambivalence is flattering. The kids are already heavily involved in the business units – Isha is on the board of Reliance Retail and is set to join that of the newly spun-off Jio Financial Services, while Akash chairs telecoms and Anant is part of the materials and renewable energy ventures.
India’s Reliance appoints Ambani children to board in succession plan
They operate alongside professional managers. By sticking around, Ambani can oversee the promised listings of his two consumer businesses.
Here, the top challenge may be getting public shareholders to match the $100 billion valuation the Qataris have set for the shopping unit. As yet there’s no clarity about the timing of these floats.
Another reason for investor apathy was a lack of big reveals. Such meetings ought to be boring for any company regularly communicating its plans to the market, and Reliance offered less of a spectacle than it has in recent years. That’s a welcome evolution too.
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