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| The extended silence from the Ambani brothers suggests that the truce declared some weeks ago is holding, and that a settlement of succession issues in the Reliance group may be reached soon. |
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| The grapevine talks of two or three outstanding issues that are still to be sorted out, but matters may have reached the stage where the two brothers can only go forward, not back. |
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| However, given the intricate nature of cross-holdings, dividing the group into two roughly equal halves cannot be a simple matter, with tax issues presumably adding to the complications. |
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| One must assume though that a broadly acceptable settlement will emerge, helped by the independent valuation exercise that has been done, leaving the brothers to settle their differences and go their separate ways, and then to prove their mettle in the undeclared business rivalry that is bound to ensue. |
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| All this is part of the usual welter of issues in a business family when it comes to settling succession issues, and it is possible that a split will unleash new energies so that both sub-groups end up doing better than the unified-but- divided group may have done. |
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| What makes this particular case different, other than in the sheer size of the businesses and therefore money involved, is the series of public policy and public interest issues that have been raised by the disclosures of the last five months. |
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| And it will be informative to watch how those issues are settled. The questions will particularly concern Anil Ambani, for it was he who raised issues of corporate governance and public interest. |
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| Was that concern genuine, or was it merely tactical play to bring brother Mukesh to the negotiating table, or a combination of both? |
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| For instance, Anil Ambani had raised questions regarding the valuation of Reliance Infocomm, when Mukesh had sought to convert into equity shares money given by Reliance Industries to Infocomm. |
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| With Infocomm now set to go to Anil, will it be valued anywhere near the level that Mukesh had stated, or will valuation drop precipitously? If the earlier valuation favoured by Mukesh sticks, will that be fair to the general body of Reliance shareholders (and Anil had argued it would not)? |
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If not, how will the outstanding RIL money given to Infocomm be treated? If Anil
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