For Reliance's billionaire boss Mukesh Ambani, it’s all hands on deck

Asia’s richest tycoon has summoned all hands on deck to help him steer his $250 billion empire through the biggest geopolitical storm of its five decades as a public company.

Friends and family answered Chairman Mukesh Ambani’s call. The chief executives of Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Walt Disney Co. and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund showed up at Reliance Industries Ltd.‘s virtual annual general meeting last Friday, together with the man himself, his wife, and three children.

The 68-year-old patriarch, whose processing of discounted Russian oil is at the heart of rapidly fraying US-India ties, needs all the support he can get. President Donald Trump has sanctioned the most-populous nation with exorbitant 50% tariffs, allegedly for feeding Vladimir Putin’s war machine. US officials haven’t directly accused Ambani. But when White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro disparages Prime Minister Narendra Modi by his bizarre reference to the Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war,” he puts the largest single buyer of Russian oil in India in a pickle.


“I assure our respected prime minister that Reliance will follow his command with redoubled efforts,” Ambani said at the AGM. That show of solidarity with Modi’s call for economic self-reliance is along expected lines. To say anything else would mean losing political influence at home. At the same time, though, Ambani can’t afford to annoy the US, which his conglomerate needs more than ever for capital and technology to break into the big league: $1 trillion-plus market valuation. A strategy to weather the squall started to emerge at the shareholders’ meeting.

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Ambani’s older son, Akash, has been tasked to keep the Americans happy by delivering a mega initial public offering of the group’s digital services business, the world’s largest data firm with 500 million customers. During the pandemic, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg were among the tech titans who pumped $20 billion into Jio Platforms Ltd. An IPO by June would strengthen the case for their further entanglement. Both made cameo appearances at the Friday event to back Ambani’s upcoming investments in artificial intelligence. Google will provide cloud infrastructure, while a $100 million joint venture with Meta will develop AI solutions for local enterprises.

The Saudi PIF, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, is an investor in both Jio and Reliance Retail. The biggest Indian retailer is not yet IPO-ready, but Isha Ambani — Akash’s twin sister — is building out a consumer goods company that will eventually make the stuff that sells on Reliance’s shopping network. That’s where the media partnership with Disney, with 300 million paid subscribers and a near-complete lock on cricket, would come in handy as an advertising vehicle. Disney boss Bob Iger, too, sent in a video message for Reliance shareholders.

However, the media business won’t be just about entertainment and commerce. New Delhi has long yearned for its own version of Qatar’s Al Jazeera, a tool to influence global opinion and signal India’s rise. Since the project has gone nowhere, Ambani is promising to step into the void with news bureaus in major world capitals. This, too, is a message of support to the Modi government, which needs to find its way back into Washington’s strategic orbit even as it normalizes trade and investment ties with Beijing. It’s also a timely move from a competitive standpoint. The rival Adani group’s legal troubles in the US are making it hard for it to beef up its international clout.

The most crucial project, however, has been given to Anant Ambani. The youngest scion has to attract the capital that Trump no longer wants for US solar and wind projects and create a renewables unit as big as Reliance’s oil-to-chemicals business in five to seven years. It won’t be easy to replicate a refinery operation that has churned out $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion in annual EBITDA since the start of the Ukraine war. The question is if the 30-year-old, who came to the AGM podium for the first time on Friday, can execute such an audacious pivot. The Adani Group, which has similar plans, will put up a tough fight.

Here, the friends who attended any part of Anant Ambani’s five-month-long, $600 million wedding celebration last year might prove helpful. Among them is Yasir Al-Rumayyan. The governor of Saudi PIF, who joined the shareholders’ meeting as a Reliance board member, is also the chairman of Saudi Aramco. The state-run oil producer had come close to investing in Reliance’s refinery in 2019. The deal fell apart two years later. Why not put it back on the table? A changed geopolitical landscape and the Saudis’ proximity to the Trump administration may offer a chance to direct Ambani’s petrochemicals behemoth away from Russian oil and toward Middle Eastern crude and US gas, particularly ethane.

Anant Ambani has been in the news of late for his wildlife sanctuary. The Supreme Court in New Delhi has ordered a probe into whether Vantara, which describes itself as a rescue and rehabilitation center, has acquired animals unlawfully or broken any other rules. Although Vantara has denied the allegations, such distractions can be costly at this juncture. A lackluster stock price shows investors are skeptical of Ambani’s pledge to transform Reliance into a “deep-tech company.” To prove naysayers wrong, now may be the time to dial down the group’s visibility.

Nita Ambani, Mukesh’s wife, is doing just that. She was all set to host an India weekend this month at New York’s Lincoln Center. The program has been indefinitely postponed. For the first family of India Inc., it’s truly all hands on deck.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)