However, Mukesh Ambani emphasised that he is not yet retiring and that he will “continue to provide hands-on leadership as before.”
The most valuable firm in India has revealed its succession plan, with billionaire Mukesh Ambani designating his twins Akash and Isha for senior roles in telecom and retail, and his youngest son Anant for the new energy sector.
But he emphasised that he was not yet retiring and that he would “continue to provide hands-on leadership as before.” At Reliance Industries Ltd.’s annual shareholders meeting, he stated that the company will maintain its status as “a unified, well-integrated, and secure institution even as it develops existing businesses and adds new growth engines” thanks to the sturdy architecture he has announced.
Reliance operates in three main industries: petrochemicals and oil refining, retail, and digital services, which includes telecom. Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. are two separate wholly-owned corporations that contain the retail and digital services, respectively (RRVL). An operational subsidiary of Reliance is the oil-to-chemical, or O2C, industry. The parent company also has a new energy division.
Ambani, 65, has three children in total—the twins Akash and Isha, as well as his youngest son Anant—in addition to his business. “At Jio and Retail, respectively, Akash and Isha have taken on leadership positions. Since the beginning, they have been fervently involved in our consumer operations “said he. “Anant has also enthusiastically joined our new energy venture. Actually, Jamnagar is where he spends the majority of his time.”
The other two are on boards; only Akash has been appointed as a functional head of a corporation thus far. “All three have completely absorbed the mentality of our founder, Dirubhai. In a youthful group of leaders and experts doing incredible things at Reliance, they are first among equals. Of course, all of them receive daily mentoring from our senior officials, including the board of directors and myself “added he.
Akash, 30, was appointed chairman of Jio Platforms’ subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. in June. The company that has telecom licences is Jio Infocomm, while Mukesh Ambani is still the chairman of Jio Platforms, the company that Google and Facebook owned Meta.
Isha is wed to Anand Piramal, the son of Ajay and Swati Piramal of the Piramal Group. Since October 2014, Akash and Isha have been on the boards of RRVL, the organisation that runs shops that sell consumer electronics, food and groceries, apparel, jewellery, and footwear, as well as the online shopping platform JioMart, and its digital subsidiary Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL).
Recently, RRVL welcomed Anant as a new director. He joined JPL as a director in May 2020. The sizes of Reliance’s three companies are nearly equal. Anant has been focusing on Reliance’s renewable energy as a director while Akash and Isha have both been involved in the group’s new-age industries of retail and telecom.
The announcement outlines a clear transfer of wealth by the 65-year-old 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 over USD 94 billion, continues to be the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. His wife Nita, 59, too is on board of Reliance.
