Anil Takes Over As Chairman Of Reliance Infocomm

[abhay 0]

Former MCI V-P joins Reliance Info

MUMBAI: Anil Ambani seems to be in a hurry to put his telecom business, Reliance Infocomm, in order - both at home and abroad. While at home, the younger Ambani is expanding the subscriber base at a fast pace, he has also firmed up organic expansion plans for the US market.

On Saturday, Michael Sauer, former senior V-P at MCI, joined Reliance Infocomm as president for the American region. Sauer will be in charge of North and South America and will be based in New York.

Top Reliance Infocomm officials confirmed Sauer's appointment but declined to elaborate further. A few more top level hirings in the US are expected soon, they added.

At present, Reliance Info's operations in the US include FLAG optical fibre network; Reliance IndiaCall, its calling cards service, mainly targeted at NRIs, and the wholesale voice & data business.

Industry sources said Sauer, who has experience in different fields of telecom as well as finance, including mergers & acquisitions and international product & service contract negotiations, could prove to be an important link in Ambani's international plans, particularly the US.

Although top officials said that the US operations of Reliance Info, which is unlisted, contribute significantly to its total revenue and growth numbers are strong, they declined to part with the numbers. MCI, from where Sauer comes, is a leading global communications provider in more than 150 countries.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1373236.cms

http://www.business-standard.com/common/st...N&autono=211737

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something new from rINFO's desk guys!!

Reliance Infocomm CTVs, DVDs, home theatres

Telecom major Reliance Infocomm is exploring the possibility of retailing consumer electronic (CE) products under its own brand name. The company is evaluating the idea of creating a business model of branding and marketing Reliance CE products such as televisions and audio by scaling up its existing retail network for its mobile handset business.

According to rough estimates, the company sold 5m handsets in ‘05 worth Rs 2,500 crore. Currently, Reliance Infocomm already has tie-ups with durable majors, LG and Samsung for co-branding mobile handsets.

Senior Reliance Infocomm officials told ET that there is a feeling that the company could leverage its brand name in the consumer electronics space.

“We have around 250 specialised Reliance webworlds and more than 1,000 Reliance exclusive webworlds that sell and service RIM (Reliance India Mobile).

We are already getting into areas such as DTH and video-on-demand products, essentially a convergence of IT and consumer electronics. By merely scaling up our business in the sector, the business possibility would be immense,” a senior official said.

At this point of time, it is not clear if Reliance Infocomm plans to venture into manufacturing of CEs or plans to source and market the same from its outlets.

Currently, while the existing outlets are not big enough to accommodate a wide product range, sources said the issue of space would be sorted out if plans fructify.

Consumer electronics will certainly not be an easy cake-walk for Reliance given the fierce competition in the market place. Currently, LG, Samsung, Philips, Onida and Videocon are some of the toughest competitors in the market.

“A new affordable pricing for a high-priced product will always make a difference in any market. Reliance made a mobile handset affordable to the common man, if they can do that with new technology products like an LCD TV, an MP3 player or an iPod, that will be their cutting edge,” said KS Raman, senior CE industry consultant.

Earlier, the Baron group through Akai (now a Videocon brand) and later Aiwa and Korean major, LG created a price revolution through affordable colour televisions post-2000 in the CE market

Company watchers said the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprise has big plans to become a major producer of content. “Rather than hardware, Anil is likely to focus on software,’’ sources said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articl...567,curpg-1.cms

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Sauer joins Reliance Communication Inc., USA, as president

Reliance Communication Inc., USA, a group company of Reliance Infocomm Ltd has appointed Michael P. Sauer as president. He will be based in New York and will be responsible for the company's operations in North and South America. He will be a member of the company's senior management team.

Prior to joining Reliance Communication Inc., USA, Sauer was MCI senior vice president international relations and international carrier services.

A graduate in Economics from Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, Sauer brings to the table rich experience in areas of strategic analysis and planning, sales and marketing, finance, foreign governmental partnerships, vendor relationships, merger and acquisition integration, and technology application, among others.

Prior to MCI, some of the companies Sauer has worked in include WorldCom, Inc; ITT Communications, Secaucus, NJ; and IDB/WorldCom, Inc.

Reliance Infocomm group president B D Khurana said, "We are extremely delighted to have Mike on board. I am sure with his great leadership skills, domain knowledge and wealth of experience he will help drive the company's business in that very important market."

http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/.../jan/jan279.htm

something similar

[Arun 795]

Ambanis fight for talent

Venkatesh Ganesh

Mumbai, January 30, 2006

- Hindustan Times

You don't have to be nice to a brother you aren't talking to. Or do you? Anil Ambani, for one, doesn't believe in Bollywood values. If it's war, it's war: hit the mattress and look after the boys.

Anil has drawn up a list of Reliance Infocomm employees who he wants to keep at any cost. In the reorganisation following the split of the Reliance empire, these employees can stay or join another group company.

Junior Ambani doesn't want to lose some of these people. And here is how he is keeping them: an upfront 10-20 per cent pay hike, backed by a three-year projection of career and salary growth possibilities, sources in the know say.

To qualify, employees have to impress Anil. They must be specialists and must look of critical use in the long run. At least two people were selected from each department for this special treatment.

When contacted, a Reliance Infocomm spokesperson declined to comment.

The strategy appears to be working. Some employees have announced they are staying. But some are moving on -- and these are mostly people who joined when Mukesh Ambani was in charge.

"Some executives, mainly chemical engineers who don't have any career prospects in Infocomm, are in the process of moving to RIL," says a source.

While RIL pay levels average less than Infocomm, Mukesh is offering fatter pay packets for his new retail venture.

So, who’s winning this one?

[Arun 795]

Dabba trade reveals Anil Ambani’s true wealth

- HindustanTimes.com

Suman Layak

Mumbai, February 2, 2006

Anil Ambani may easily overtake brother Mukesh by a long way as the third richest Indian as soon as he decides to list Reliance Infocomm. The Forbes magazine lists Lakshmi Mittal as the richest Indian (Rs 90,000 crore) followed by Azim Premji and the Ambani brothers at third and fourth.

Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd, the company demerged out of Reliance Industries Ltd, has evoked great interest in dabba trade and the stock is quoted at around Rs 265-280 over the last few days.

Dabba trade is illegal off-market deals. These shares are yet to be listed. Shares of another demerged company, Reliance Natural Resources are trading at Rs 20 to Rs 25.

Premji’s wealth has moved up in the recent bull run to around Rs 61,000 crore and Mukesh Ambani is now worth Rs 34,480 crore.

Anil Ambani’s personal net worth, taking in account his share in various companies, conservatively works out to something in the range of Rs 38,600 crore. Reliance Infocomm, which has moved to the Anil Ambani camp through the demerger, might emerge as a goldmine.

The listing of Reliance Infocomm will be the greatest ‘unlocking of value’ that Anil Ambani has repeatedly stressed about and even ordinary shareholders would benefit as and when the management decides to go ahead.

Anil Ambani directly owns a 35 per cent stake in Reliance Infocomm — transferred as a part of the settlement. He also holds 35 per cent of RCVL, the erstwhile promoters’ holding. And RCVL owns the remaining 65 per cent in Reliance Infocomm.

If RCVL is merged into Reliance Infocomm, just as Reliance Energy Ventures is being merged into Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital Ventures is being merged into Reliance Capital, Anil Ambani will get another 26 per cent shares of Reliance Infocomm, thereby controlling 61 per cent in Reliance Infocomm.

Some rough calculation suggests that RCVL shareholders would get three shares of Reliance Infocomm of Re 1 each for every share of Rs 10 held in RCVL.

If one RCVL share is trading at Rs 270 now, then Reliance Infocomm shares will be worth Rs 90 each.

At this price, the market capitalisation of Reliance Infocomm works out at Rs 44,000 crore. However, analysts have said that Reliance Infocomm might list at a premium price of Rs 125 to Rs 130. At that price, the market capitalisation will be as high as Rs 63,000 crore.

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Mukesh Ambani to set up corporate city

Six months after he agreed to vacate the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City for younger brother Anil, Mukesh Ambani is drawing up plans to set up an even bigger complex — the Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City — complete with a lake and a forest reserve in Navi Mumbai.

Spread over 180 acres, the Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City will be about 40 acres bigger than the Dhirubhai Knowledge City. At present, the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City is the headquarters of Reliance Industries.

But as part of the June 2005 settlement between the two brothers, Mukesh Ambani will have to shift out of the complex in three years.

Sources close to the development said the Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City would be built in two phases.

In the first phase, Reliance Industries will build two towers for its national headquarters and petroleum headquarters. In the second phase, the company will set up retail malls.

Nita Ambani, president of the Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation and Mukesh Ambani’s wife, is believed to be taking a keen interest in the development of the complex.

When contacted, a Reliance Industries spokesperson declined to comment. The land earmarked for the Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City belongs to National Organic Chemical Industries, which Reliance Industries had acquired some years ago.

Next to it, at Rabale, is the headquarters of another Mukesh Ambani venture, Reliance Life Sciences.

With 14 buildings spread over 2.2 million sq ft of office space, the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City can accommodate 10,000 people.

The nerve-centre of this complex is a spectacular 110,000 sq ft national network operations centre which controls the entire network of Reliance Infocomm, covering 60,000 km of optic fibre. The complex has a lake and a temple.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/st...N&autono=213985

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Demerger differences bite Ambani Bros

The dispute between Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group (ADAG) seems to have flared up again. This time, the bone of contention is the transfer of control and ownership of the four new companies formed as a result of the RIL demerger.

The ET newsroom on Sunday evening was witness to a fusillade of press releases being issued by both sides — first by ADAG, then by the Mukesh Ambani group, to be followed up by the ADAG group again. This came on top of a public statement by ADAG director JP Chalasani on Saturday, followed by an official press release from the Mukesh Ambani side.

ET had reported for the first time on February 4 that there were differences between the two sides regarding the signing of the gas supply agreement. It now appears that this is only the tip of the iceberg and the disagreements seem to encompass the entire demerger process. ADAG is now accusing RIL of “violating the letter and spirit” of the June 18, ‘05 settlement.

At a hurriedly-called press conference on Sunday evening, ADAG director and Reliance Energy vice president Satish Seth raised three core issues — the delay in the transfer of management and control of the four ADAG companies to the group, transfer of their ownership to ADAG, and execution of certain agreements by RIL despite dissent by ADAG.

Mr Seth pointed out that it has been now nearly two months after the Bombay High Court approved the settlement scheme (December 9, ‘05) and almost two weeks after the record date. “Despite the above, the boards of none of the four Reliance-ADAG companies have been reconstituted till date, and the said companies all continue to be fully managed and controlled by RIL. RIL’s stance that management and control of the four companies can be handed over to Reliance-ADAG only after listing of the companies, is contrary to the clear language and intent of the scheme of arrangement,” he said.

RIL, on the other hand, believes that transfer of the four companies should only take place after they are listed. But, ADAG believes that the agreement requires control to be transferred after the record date, which was January 25, ‘05.

Meanwhile, in a letter to Reliance Energy director Gautam Doshi (and a senior ADAG official), written by Sandip Tandon, chairman of the four new companies — which was faxed to the ET newsroom on Sunday evening in response to Mr Seth’s press conference — said: “... the scheme of demerger is a composite scheme and has to be fulfilled in totality.

The listing of the equity shares of each resulting company under clause 14.4 of the scheme and reconstitution of the board under clause 17 of the scheme are equally relevant... it will not be appropriate to fulfil one aspect of the scheme and keep pending another parallel aspect of the scheme.

We, as directors of the resulting companies, are equally concerned about the matter and are committed to protecting the interests of lakhs of shareholders, which can be met only by listing of the shares of the resulting companies and being admitted to trading.”

The RIL side also went public on TV channels on Sunday evening with a fresh allegation, claiming that the delay was due in part to Mr Anil Ambani wanting to increase his stake in Reliance Communication Ventures, the telecom holding company.

Mr Tandon’s counter-reply to the ADAG allegation blames Mr Doshi for the delay, claiming that Mr Doshi had written to the stock exchanges asking for a staggered listing of the four companies.

In respect of Reliance Communication Ventures, RIL sources claimed that the delay had been caused because the ADA group was “not cooperating in putting together the information memoranda. As a result, the information memoranda had not been completed till now.”

Late at night, ADAG refuted the claims made by the RIL side: “In its usual style, RIL has issued a vague and misleading response. All substantive issues remain unresolved. As of now, no shares have been transferred to us, nor has control of the four companies been given to us. RIL’s response is also silent on the deviations of the MoU as raised by us and the breach of corporate governance in the unilateral execution of agreements. We stand by our statement released earlier this evening in full.”

Earlier in the evening, Mr Seth claimed that the draft information memoranda for three of the four companies have been unilaterally submitted to the BSE and NSE, without approval of the Reliance-ADAG nominees. Sebi, BSE and the NSE were informed of this in January ‘06, Mr Seth said, pointing out that all relevant information and details statutorily required to be provided in connection with listing, can be appropriately provided by Reliance-ADAG, upon control and management of the four companies being received.

“Reliance-ADAG is committed to, and has also formally sought Sebi’s approval for, an expeditious listing schedule for the four resulting companies, to be completed prior to March 31, ‘06,” he said.

Mr Seth refused to answer any questions at the press conference. In his statement, he said RIL has executed certain agreements... ”despite specific dissent being communicated on record, by the Reliance-ADAG nominees at the respective board meetings. These agreements contain substantial deviations from the agreed position, as per the overall settlement arrived at between the two groups. These agreements have been signed, purportedly on behalf of the Reliance-ADAG companies, by the nominees of RIL, who had no authority to do so.”

Between January 10 and 12, ADAG sources alleged the four ADAG companies held board meetings and entered into agreements with RIL. The four ADAG companies are — Reliance Communications Ventures, Reliance Energy Ventures, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Capital Ventures. These companies own RIL’s stake in Reliance Energy, Reliance Infocomm and Reliance Capital.

According to ADAG sources, “The agreements signed between January 10 and 12 are like RIL signing agreements with its own group companies without the consent of ADAG. Subsequently, information memoranda have been given to the stock exchanges by these companies while still under RIL’s control. In fact, the information memoranda should have been filed only after the control was passed to ADAG.”

These agreements pertain to non-compete and trademark issues and the gas supply agreement with Reliance Natural Resources, Mr Seth said at the press conference

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1401653.cms

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Anil embarks on group restructuring

The Ambani brothers were back to business after ending an acrimonious ownership battle.

Younger scion Anil unveiled an ambitious corporate strategy just a day after acquiring four companies from Mukesh, whose side also plunged into corporate activities.

Facing the challenge of establishing himself as an astute businessmen after split of the Reliance empire, Anil kicked off his group's restructuring. This included a scheme of merger and listing of the new companies by March 10.

He started with his appointment as Chairman of Reliance Energy Ventures (REVL), Reliance Capital Ventures (RCVL), Reliance Communication Ventures (RCoVL) and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL).

After this, he announced that REVL and RCVL would be merged with Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital.

A statement by Reliance-ADAG gave a detailed schedule of the listing beginning with RCVL from the week starting February 13.

The statement said that for listing purposes, draft information memorandum, finalised when the four entities were under the control of Mukesh, would be revised.

Future plans

Neither of the camps was willing to talk about the war of words over the transfer and listing of the four companies till these were handed over to Anil late last night.

After RCVL, the Reliance-ADA Group would list REVL during the week starting February 20, RNRL in the subsequent week and finally RCoVL in the week beginning March 10.

The listing would be followed by a merger of REVL and RCVL with the flagship power entity Reliance Energy and main financial services firm Reliance Capital Ltd respectively.

Subsequent to the amalgamation, the shares of REL and RCL held by REVL and RCVL would be cancelled. This would also eliminate dual listing of companies in the same businesses.

The newly-constituted boards of REVL and RCVL today approved the scheme of amalgamation. The Boards of REL and RCL had approved the merger last month.

Significantly, the ADA Group did not comment about the likely merger of Reliance Communication Ventures with Reliance Infocomm.

Consolidate business

The Mukesh camp had alleged that Anil wanted to consolidate all telecom businesses into a single entity. And thereafter proceed with the listing process in a bid to increase his personal shareholding.

The scheme of amalgamation approved on Wednesday envisages a share swap ratio of five equity shares of RCL for every 100 shares of RCVL.

Similarly, the exchange ratio of 7.5 equity shares of REL for every 100 shares of REVL has been fixed.

The amalgamation is being done for the benefit of 22 lakh shareholders of both REL and RCL, Reliance-ADAG said.

The exchange ratio of shares has been worked out on the recommendations of global consulting firm KPMG. (PTI)

http://www.ndtv.com/charts/homepage/StoryB...=Reliancecrisis

[abhay 0]

this threads all about younger Ambani's other ventures which spans from insurance, entertainment, capital management, energy ETC ETC ETC

Anil Ambani buys 44% in DTDC for Rs 65 cr

Anil Ambani on Tuesday donned a new avatar. From running telecom to power and now fighting a legal battle for controlling domestic airports, Anil is competing with private equity investors like ICICI Ventures, American International Group (AIG) and Blackstone.

On Tuesday he pipped the above mentioned investors to acquire 44% stake of a Bangalore-based leading courier and express player - DTDC Courier and Cargo Ltd - for Rs 65 crore. Anil has bought the stake of one of the two founder brothers of the company.

Says an insider, "this is just a pure investment and we are looking to exit at the upside of this logistics which is currently growing at 20% annually."

Anil's Reliance Private Equity, a division of the listed Reliance Capital Ltd, has acquired stake from one of the founders of the company.

The final race for the stake was among Reliance Private Equity, Geo Post of France and world's largest courier player DHL.

After the sale, Subhasish Chakraborty, a first generation entrepreneur, will continue to lead the management team with his 56% shareholding. DTDC, started in 1990, has notched up a revenue of Rs 125 crore this year and is targeting a sales of Rs 500 crore by 2010.

However, logistic industry players believe that the Rs 3 lakh domestic logistic market expected to grow exponentially after the current infrastructure projects (roads, ports) are completed, Reliance Capital may find buyers like DHL, UPS and Federal Express

http://broadband-in-india-news.newslib.com/story/6460-78/