10-page deed signed by ‘united’ family key to divide

If the Ambani controversy finds its way to the courts, one of the things both sides will contest is what to make of a 10-page document they ...

If the Ambani controversy finds its way to the courts, one of the things both sides will contest is what to make of a 10-page document they signed together four months after the death of Dhirubhai Ambani.

The ‘‘deed of release,’’ signed in October 2002 by all the members of his immediate family, says that his four children have ‘‘released their entire share, right, title, interest and claim in respect of the entire estate of late Dhirubhai H Ambani in favour of (his widow) Kokilaben D Ambani.’’

Listing his various assets in eight schedules, the document filed with the Income Tax Department declares that ‘‘Kokilaben D Ambani will be the sole and absolute owner of the entire estate of late Dhirubhai H Ambani, including but not limited to the properties stated in the Release Deed.’’

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The contents of this legally executed document are being cited by those close to Anil Ambani in a bid to contradict Mukesh Ambani’s statement that their father had ‘‘settled all ownership issues pertaining to Reliance within his lifetime.’’

The argument of Anil Ambani’s camp is: Since Dhirubhai Ambani was the creator and owner of the controlling stake in Reliance Industries Ltd, ‘‘the legal effect of the Release Deed is that the controlling stake in RIL now belongs to Kokilaben.’’

But Mukesh Ambani’s side counters all this by asserting that the Release Deed has no bearing on the 29% equity ‘‘controlled’’ by him in RIL. This is because, it says, that 29% stake is owned by ‘‘an intricate web of investment companies’’ in which Dhirubhai Ambani did not have a single share.

According to Mukesh Ambani’s camp, the purpose of those investment companies was to confer their ‘‘voting rights’’ on Dhirubhai Ambani who had, in turn, transferred them to Mukesh Ambani. It is the ‘‘ownership issues’’ of those investment companies that are, as Mukesh Ambani said, ‘‘in the private domain.’’

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Anil Ambani’s camp questions the logic of this claim. How can there be no transparency whatsoever on 29% stake in RIL, which has market capitalisation of Rs 70,000 crore? If Dhirubhai Ambani was not the owner of those investment companies holding shares in RIL, how can the persons said to be actually owning them remain unnamed? Who has been enjoying the dividends that have been paid all these years by RIL to those investment companies?

Anil Ambani’s side also demands a disclosure of how and when the voting rights of those investment companies were transferred by Dhirubhai Ambani to Mukesh Ambani. If Mukesh Ambani’s side is arguing that his controlling stake in RIL is unaffected by the Deed, what is the corresponding document that bears testimony to the alleged transfer of that authority to him?

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