'Dhirubhai obviated need for will'

Affirming that whatever his mother Kokilaben considers 'fair' in resolving the ownership issue in the Reliance empire was acceptable to him, Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, said on Wednesday that the "architecture" of the group's ownership obviated the necessity of a will.

The Reliance 'ownership issue'

In a significant elaboration on the ownership of the Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) group, Mukesh said through a spokesman, "The architecture of this ownership has been configured by (his late father) Dhirubhai Ambani in a framework of companies. Given this configuration, it obviates the necessity of a will."

Pointing out that the ownership of RIL is publicly held and that the company shares are owned by millions of shareholders, A RIL spokesman went on to say that this was father Ambani's "historic contribution to the transformation of the capital market and democratisation of wealth creation in India." The Ambani family also owned shares in Reliance, he said.

The architecture of ownership configured by the founder chairman "reflected his farsightedness" and his belief "that Reliance went far beyond the character of a family owned company to that of a national asset," the spokesman said.  It was also aimed at professionalisation or management by separating it from the ownership structure, he added.

Asked if there was truth in reports that suggested that Mukesh was keen to retain the control of flagship company RIL and give Anil a compensation and some other companies of the group, the spokesman said the company or its chairman did not comment on speculation, guess work and unsubstantiated media reports.