NEW DELHI: On May 26, an Airbus ACJ 320 with the call sign ‘VT-IAH’ touched down at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport from Mumbai. Another flight, a Falcon 2000 that answered to the call sign ‘VT-AAT’, landed two minutes later. The pilots of both the jets informed their billionaire owners that they have landed safely. Outside, the day was just beginning, but the mercury in Delhi had already climbed to 38 degrees.
Mukesh Ambani, the owner-passenger from the first plane, walked out of the airport in his characteristic brisk style, his mind preoccupied with the packed schedule for the day. On top of his priority list was a meeting of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry. At the airport, Mukesh ran into Angarai Sethuraman, head of corporate affairs at the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) and a close aide to Anil Ambani. He was there to receive the owner-passenger of the second jet: Anil Ambani. Suddenly, Sethuraman was face-to-face with his old boss. Mukesh, chairman of India’s largest private sector company, Reliance Industries (RIL), calmly walked up to Sethuraman, shook hands and asked him warmly, “How are you, Sethu?” That small gesture travelled quickly through the political and business circles of the Capital, where the news on Monday that the Ambani brothers have decided to end their six-year-long acrimonious battle and to “collaborate” had been received with surprise bordering on scepticism. Even though the brothers lived and worked in Mumbai, many of their battles were fought in the power corridor of Luyten’s Delhi. The Capital’s decision makers and influencers knew the bitter saga closely. It had divided them, put them in awkward spots, and in many cases, rewarded them handsomely. The fault lines of the battle divided the loyalties of New Delhi, whose importance was understood early and well by the Reliance patriarch, the late Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani. So the city had to see for itself if there was actually a thaw in hostilities. By warmly greeting a man who had been a key figure in the rival camp’s New Delhi affairs, Mukesh Ambani sent a clear signal—he meant to stick to the agreement in spirit. Exactly a week earlier, on May 19, Kokilaben Ambani, Dhirubhai’s widow and mother of the warring brothers, had returned after a visit to the famous Shiva temple at Kedarnath in the Himalayan foothills. “This has gone too far now. The two of you have to resolve the differences,” Kokilaben is believed to have told younger son Anil, according to insiders who have heard accounts of the conversation. Anil had accompanied her on the pilgrimage along with his sister Deepti Salgaonkar. But Kokilaben had been there before and almost done that. Five years ago, she had stepped in and drew up a settlement between her two sons, who lived in reasonable harmony while her husband was alive, and had a bitter fallout soon after his death. The agreement, dividing the companies Dhirubhai Ambani had assiduously built between his two sons, was signed on June 18, 2005. Six months before that Mukesh Ambani had, during a TV interview, admitted to “ownership issues” that were in the “private domain”. That was the first public admission of disharmony that had been brewing behind the scenes since the death of Dhirubhai. |
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Anil Ambani may get priority gas if RIL picks equity
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Heard on the Street: Bulls ‘short’ on Sesa Goa as they see limited upside
Bulls ‘short’ on Sesa Goa as they see limited upside
Shares of Sesa Goa rose sharply on Thursday on the back of short-covering, but traders used this pullback to build short positions on the stock, as they feel the upside is capped. On BSE, the stock gained 3.8% to close at Rs 337.45. According to analysts, the recent rise in iron ore prices will not be sustainable and is expected to decline. A majority of the broking firms have maintained a cautious view on the stock, after it tanked on the back of the fall in global commodity prices. Interestingly, over the past couple of days, an insurance major had been accumulating the stock at various levels.
Funds buy SCI on bonus share issue hope
Investors have been accumulating shares of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) in large numbers on speculation that the company will announce a bonus share issue at its board meeting on Saturday. The ratio of the bonus issue is not known as yet. According to market sources, a state-owned mutual fund and a mid-sized private bank-promoted fund house have been buying shares of the shipmaker in sizeable quantities over the past one week. Analysts tracking the company say that the government could come up with a divestment plan for SCI shortly. It intends to sell up to a 10% stake in the shipping company. The divestment story seems highly probable as SCI needs about Rs 2,000 crore over the next two years to fund its expansion plan, analysts said. Shares of SCI ended 1% higher at Rs 159 on the BSE on Thursday.
FIs bet on deregulation, lap up oilcos
Of late, some institutional investors have been buying shares of state-owned oil companies such as ONGC and Oil India ahead of the meeting of the Empowered Group on Ministers (EGoM) in the first week of June, when oil price deregulation could be discussed. Investors are betting that the government could arrive at a decision to deregulate oil prices, if not entirely. An institutional broking firm owned by a bank is rumoured to be recommending these shares, though a official there denied this. A broker attributed the resilience in shares of Oil India on Thursday despite fourth-quarter results falling below expectations to such speculation. Some market participants said the recent purchases of these shares by institutional investors are part of their ‘trading bets’.
Contributed by Harish Rao, Shailesh Menon & Nishanth Vasudevan
Shares of Sesa Goa rose sharply on Thursday on the back of short-covering, but traders used this pullback to build short positions on the stock, as they feel the upside is capped. On BSE, the stock gained 3.8% to close at Rs 337.45. According to analysts, the recent rise in iron ore prices will not be sustainable and is expected to decline. A majority of the broking firms have maintained a cautious view on the stock, after it tanked on the back of the fall in global commodity prices. Interestingly, over the past couple of days, an insurance major had been accumulating the stock at various levels.
Funds buy SCI on bonus share issue hope
Investors have been accumulating shares of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) in large numbers on speculation that the company will announce a bonus share issue at its board meeting on Saturday. The ratio of the bonus issue is not known as yet. According to market sources, a state-owned mutual fund and a mid-sized private bank-promoted fund house have been buying shares of the shipmaker in sizeable quantities over the past one week. Analysts tracking the company say that the government could come up with a divestment plan for SCI shortly. It intends to sell up to a 10% stake in the shipping company. The divestment story seems highly probable as SCI needs about Rs 2,000 crore over the next two years to fund its expansion plan, analysts said. Shares of SCI ended 1% higher at Rs 159 on the BSE on Thursday.
FIs bet on deregulation, lap up oilcos
Of late, some institutional investors have been buying shares of state-owned oil companies such as ONGC and Oil India ahead of the meeting of the Empowered Group on Ministers (EGoM) in the first week of June, when oil price deregulation could be discussed. Investors are betting that the government could arrive at a decision to deregulate oil prices, if not entirely. An institutional broking firm owned by a bank is rumoured to be recommending these shares, though a official there denied this. A broker attributed the resilience in shares of Oil India on Thursday despite fourth-quarter results falling below expectations to such speculation. Some market participants said the recent purchases of these shares by institutional investors are part of their ‘trading bets’.
Contributed by Harish Rao, Shailesh Menon & Nishanth Vasudevan
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Src: ET, DP blog and etc
