Ambani brothers plan new launches on Dhirubhai's birthday

The Ambani brothers are set to announce new launches on the birth anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani on December 28.

While Mukesh is likely to make a foray into the speciality stores - an extension of their retail chain, where it is already selling vegetable and fruits through Reliance Fresh stores, younger brother Anil is choosing the same date to launch the much-awaited Reliance Money (R-Money), a discount broking venture of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), sources in the know said.

Mukesh's speciality stores will be the Reliance Retail's venture into the consumer goods segment, sources said. When contacted, a spokesman of the Mukesh group refused to confirm or deny the plans. An ADAG spokesman said the company would be rolling out R-Money only early next month.

But sources said R-Money would make a formal announcement of their launch coinciding with the birth anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani.

It may be recalled that Reliance Infocomm too made their launch announcement (under Mukesh Ambani, before the formal split of the Reliance businesses) on senior Ambani's birth anniversary day.

Reliance Money (R-Money), sources said would be launching their country-wide operations mostly through franchisees and ATM-like kiosks to be set-up in tie-ups with banks.

As per discussions held with prospective franchisees, R-Money officials are learnt to have set a flat fee of Rs 12 per trade, of which Rs 10 would go to the franchisee and the remaining to the company.

Similarly, R-Money would also be launching a pre-paid card for Rs 500 and upwards (in multiples of Rs 500), which allows clients to get into the ATM-like kiosks and execute their trades. The company would issue the password for clients to log in to the system, said a source.

"A client can take trade for stocks worth Rs 1 crore using the Rs 500 pre-paid card," explained the source.