This lion at Kruger National Park had company

Mumbai, June 13: When the lions of the corporate jungle want to reconcile their differences, they go to a world-renowned private game reserve in South Africa.

The venue seems even more fitting considering that the patriarch of the pride had chosen the same reserve for a family reunion a decade ago.

Between last Tuesday and Thursday, Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, and younger brother Anil, who heads a sizeable telecom, financial services and entertainment business, were at South Africa’s Kruger National Park with wives Nita and Tina and their children.

In 2000, the undivided family had vacationed with Dhirubhai Ambani in the same park that stretches 350km along the border with Mozambique.

Amid the flora and fauna, the two brothers reportedly worked on defining the contours of their new business relationship, having reached a much-publicised truce just three weeks ago to end five years of bitter fighting.

The brothers, who carved up Dhirubhai’s empire in 2005 and then continued to squabble over the nature of the agreements that were designed to create exclusive domains of operation for 10 years, have scrapped their non-compete agreement and are looking to find new ways of working together.

They may have used the South African retreat that offers exclusive family lodges to chalk out areas of co-operation in their existing businesses and the new businesses they may wish to enter. The rapprochement is expected to swell the balance sheets of the two groups.

Sources said the brothers and their families flew to South Africa separately in their private jets last week. While Anil is back in India, the elder brother is reportedly still in South Africa.

Spokespersons for the Mukesh-owned Reliance Industries and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) declined to comment on the latest peace initiative which points to continued improvement in relations.

Anil Ambani

The first signs of cooperation between the business groups were evident last Friday after RIL announced its decision to foray into high-speed wireless broadband services.

RIL stumped up Rs 4,800 crore (just over $1 billion) to acquire a 95 per cent stake in Infotel Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, a little-known Anant Nahata-owned company that had emerged as the only player to bag a pan-India licence for broadband wireless spectrum at the end of a frenzied auction.

Reliance Communications, the Anil Ambani company, welcomed RIL’s entry into the telecom space and spoke about a possible collaboration between the two companies.

This is significant since RIL may not restrict itself to high-speed data communications and could enter the voice business as well — a key operational area for Reliance Communications.

It is widely speculated that RIL will tap into Reliance Communications’ existing telecom network to offer 4G technologies like LTE (long term evolution), heralded as a convergence platform for competing telecom technologies like CDMA and GSM.

Ambani watchers are trying to second guess other possible areas of collaboration.

One could be gas-based power plants, a subject that was mired in a legal battle of gigantic proportions with the Centre sucked into the fight. The gas supply dispute was decided on May 7 when the Supreme Court came out with a verdict that favoured Mukesh. It is now possible that RIL or one of its subsidiaries may invest in gas-based power plants that are to be established by ADAG.

Similarly, RIL’s ambitions of owning a bank may find synergies with ADAG’s financial services businesses.

The Supreme Court verdict appears to have catalysed the camaraderie between the brothers. Addressing the media after the judgment, RIL counsel Harish Salve said: “Mukesh Ambani and, more importantly, Nita Ambani have said they want to put all unpleasantness and unhappiness behind us.... We hope this is a turning point, and will bring a healing touch”.

Two weeks later, the brothers scrapped the non-compete pact and issued almost identical statements: “RIL and Reliance ADA Group are hopeful and confident that all these steps would create an overall environment of harmony, cooperation and collaboration between the two groups, thereby further enhancing the overall shareholder value for shareholders of both the group.”

Those bonds of kinship were strengthened in the bush lands of South Africa last week.