It was business as expected at the board meet of Reliance-owned Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL). Anil Ambani, Vice-Chairman and Director, did not attend. His bete-noire Anand Jain, director, did. At the end of the 3-hour meet, the board asked Anil Ambani to reconsider his resignation. A short while later, IPCL Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Anand Jain, and Nikhil Meswani left Air-India building in the same car. While there has been no official response from Anil, it is learnt that he has rejected the call for a re-look at his resignation. ‘‘We have done our duty, now it is up to him to take a decision,’’ said an IPCL director. The company’s board — chaired by Mukesh Ambani — met under the backdrop of Anil’s accusation against Anand Jain, a close confidante of Mukesh and a director at IPCL, whom he had accused of conflict of interest and conspiring to divide the Ambani family. The IPCL board did not take any decision on the allegations made by Anil even as it announced a massive 133 per cent rise in profits. ‘‘The mood at the meeting was upbeat. as the financial results were very good,’’ an IPCL director told this newspaper. On Anil’s allegations, he said: ‘‘We had a free and fair discussion on this issue.’’ It is however learnt that the Reliance Industries audit committee — which is manned by independent directors — met in Mumbai on Thursday. It’s not yet known whether this committee will present a report on Thursday on various issues regarding corporate governance. By not discussing the allegations at all, the board has backed the Mukesh camp and has politely put the ball back in Anil’s court. After the meeting — which was attended by, among others, well-known Kolkata chartered accountant, Rajendra S. Lodha and Mumbai-based CA Shailesh Haribhakti and government nominees — Mukesh refused to comment to the waiting media. ‘‘We will issue a news statement,’’ Mukesh said. Anil, who is in New Delhi meeting with senior government officials in the finance and power ministries, had demanded an independent report on Jain’s business relations with IPCL and written to government directors early this week asking them to take up the issue. Sources close to Anil say he was unhappy about the fact that IPCL board had done nothing about Jain nor addressed issues of conflict of interest between him as a company director and his family’s business relationship with IPCL and Reliance. If Anil does not re-consider his resignation, then it will be taken up again in the next board meeting. ‘‘We are trying to see that both brothers come together again, in terms of letting good sense prevail — though it looks very difficult now that two MDs will ever exist in Reliance group,’’ a director added.
