Ambani siblings get shareholders’ nod to join RIL board

The shareholders of Reliance Industries (RIL) have approved the appointment of Isha Ambani, Akash Ambani and Anant Ambani as the company’s non-executive directors, it said in a stock exchange filing on Friday. Over 98 per cent votes were in favour of Isha and Akash’s appointment. The appointment of Mukesh Ambani’s youngest child – Anant, saw some resistance. 7.24 per cent of the total votes were against his appointment.

In August, Mukesh Ambani began executing a succession plan for his energy-to-technology conglomerate, appointing his three children to the board of the company. Last year, the 66-year-old tycoon made way for his first-born Akash Ambani, to become the chairman of India’s largest mobile firm, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

Jio Infocomm is a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, in which Meta and Google hold stakes and is still chaired by Mukesh. Reliance Industries Ltd is the parent of Jio Platforms. Akash’s twin sister, Isha, 31, was identified for Reliance’s retail arm and the youngest sibling Anant for the new energy business.

The siblings have been on the board of the operating companies but this is the first time they have been appointed on the board of the parent firm. US Ivy League university-educated Ambani scions have in the last few years, been groomed for leadership positions at Reliance’s three units — oil to chemicals, telecoms and retail.

While retail and digital services are housed in separate wholly-owned subsidiaries, the oil-to-chemical or O2C business is a functional division of Reliance. The new energy business is also with the parent firm.

The three businesses are almost equal in size.

While Akash and Isha graduated from Brown and Yale, respectively, Mukesh dropped out of Stanford to build a petrochemical factory for his father. Ambani’s wife, Nita, was a director on the company board but she has resigned to make way for the children. Business Standard