Hyderabad, April 20: The Ambani brothers have been trumped in the big bucks game of spousal generosity on birthdays.

Gunapati Venkata Krishna Reddy, the 65-year-old chairman of GVK Industries, has stunned everyone by gifting shares worth Rs 1,640 crore in his flagship company to his wife, Indira Krishna Reddy. The birthday gift eclipses all records in gift-giving.

GVK Industries — which owns the company that runs Mumbai’s international airport — has interests in power, infrastructure, hotels and biosciences.

The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday that Reddy had gifted 36.9 crore shares in GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd to his wife Indira on her birthday.

Indira Reddy is a promoter director of GVK Power and Infrastructure and also managing director of GVK Hotels and Resorts. She also has an 8 per cent stake in the Taj Krishna enterprise.

A few years ago, the Ambani brothers made similar ostentatious gifts to their spouses in another display of sibling rivalry. With the GVK scrip quoting at Rs 44.45 on Monday, the value of the gift is estimated at Rs 1,640 crore.

G.V.K. Reddy is the owner of Hotel Taj, which is managed by the Taj group. He also owns over 50 acres of land in Hyderabad’s tony Banjara Hills.

Industry sources, however, could not say whether the gift had a tax angle.

Reddy’s generosity overshadows two famous birthday bestowals: the first was by Mukesh Ambani who had given wife Nita a Rs 240-crore Airbus plane on her 44th birthday.

Brother Anil had gone one better in 2008 when he gave wife Tina a Rs 400-crore luxury yacht.

Closer home, a local politician had given away 5 acres of prime urban land in Hyderabad in 2002 when the land costs had shot up to Rs 15 crore per acre.

Hyderabad has witnessed ostentatious displays of spousal affection in the past. The last Nizam Osman Ali Pasha had presented a palace, 100 kg of gold, 100 horses and 1,000 slaves to his favourite queen Durru Shah on her 40th birthday.

Gift tax was abolished in September 1998.