Billionaire Mukesh Ambani has handed over the Chairmanship to his son Akash, after resigning from the board of his $217-billion group’s telecom arm, Reliance Jio, and handed over the firm’s leadership to elder son Akash. This marks the succession plan being laid out at India’s most valuable company,
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd on Tuesday, in a stock exchange filing said the company’s board at a meeting on June 27, “approved the appointment of Akash M Ambani, non-executive director, as chairman of the board of directors of the company.” This comes after his father resigned with effect from the close of working hours on June 27, it said.
Jio is a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, whose business spans from oil refining and petrochemicals to retail, media and new energy.
Ambani, 65, has three children – twins Akash and Isha and youngest son Anant.
It is widely anticipated that he may hand over the reins of the retail business to Isha, 30, who is married to Anand Piramal (son of Piramal Group’s Ajay and Swati Piramal).
Mukesh Ambani makes way for son Akash to take over Reliance Jio Leadership
Akash and Isha have been on the boards of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd – the company that operates supermarkets offering consumer electronics, food and grocery, fashion, jewellery, footwear, and clothing, as well as the online retail venture, JioMart – and digital arm Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) since October 2014.
Anant, 26, has recently been inducted as a director on RRVL. He has been a director on JPL since May 2020.
Among other appointments, Pankaj Mohan Pawar was appointed Managing Director of Reliance Jio Infocomm for five years beginning June 27, the filing said.
Reliance has three broad businesses – oil refining and petrochemicals, retail and digital services that include telecom. While retail and digital services are housed in separate wholly-owned subsidiaries, the oil-to-chemical or O2C business is a functional division of Reliance. The new energy business is also with the parent firm.
The three businesses are almost equal in size. While Akash and Isha have been both active in the group’s new-age businesses of retail and telecom, Anant has been looking at the renewable energy and oil and chemical units of Reliance as a director.
The announcement outlines a clear transfer of wealth by the 65-year-old tycoon, Mukesh Ambani who was embroiled in a bitter inheritance dispute with his younger brother after their father died in 2002 without a will.
