In its first-ever break through in the United States, Reliance Industries Limited on Friday said its subsidiary Reliance Marcellus LLC would enter into a joint venture with United States-based Atlas Energy.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries Limited began gas production from the Krishna-Godavari basin in April, 2009, and its 60 million standard cubic metres per day output led to a 75 per cent jump in natural gas availability in the country to 140 mmscmd.
RIL signed agreement to take 45 per cent interest in highly prospective Eagle Ford Shale play, the Mumbai-based firm and Pioneer said in separate but almost identical statements.
A coming together of the brothers will combine their separate, complementary and equally formidable strengths: Mukesh can execute mega projects in record time and derive value from scale; Anil is deft with finance and all things related to consumers and brands.
Mukesh Ambani, who heads Reliance Industries, has been ranked among top five best performing CEOs in the world by the prestigious Harvard Business Review.
In a first at the National Institute of Design (NID), academic profiles were offered to the graduating batch of young designers during placements this year.
The deal is expected to be around Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in size and will take a month to conclude, a person involved with the talks between the two groups said. The plot is a part of the 18.5-acre land RIL had bought in 2006 from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority for Rs 1,104 crore (Rs 11.04 billion) in an auction.
Second setback for the company in less than a month.
The apex court had sought the response after Anil Ambani-led RNRL had consented to government being made a party in the dispute. RNRL contended that it was entitled to receive the gas at $2.34 per unit from Mukesh Ambani group RIL which had entered into an arrangement for supplying gas to NTPC at that rate.
Reliance Industries Limited will announce its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2005 on Tuesday, January 10, 2006
The government on Saturday filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to declare as 'null and void' the private family agreement of the Ambanis that provides for gas supply by Reliance Industries Limited to Reliance Natural Resources Limited. The government petition has named as respondents RIL led by Mukesh Ambani and RNRL headed by Anil Ambani, which have separately filed cross-petitions against the Bombay High Court's June 15 judgment.
Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) on Monday continued to slide, falling 9.47 per cent to touch a one year-low of Rs 47.75 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, after the Supreme Court ruled against the company in a gas dispute with Reliance Industries.
Resuming arguments over its dispute with Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Natural Resources Ltd, senior counsel Harish Salve said it was RNRL which had in 2007 argued that marketing freedom cannot be allowed to the Mukesh Ambani-run firm and asked the government to frame Gas Utilisation Policy.
During hearing of the dispute over supply of gas by RIL to RNRL at $2.34 per mmBtu, the bench headed by chief justice K G Balakrishnan said the two parties could arrive at a 'suitable arrangement' through arbitration, as the Bombay high court that approved the Reliance empire's demerger cannot spell what is the ideal arrangement.
Whether it was the issue of the treasury stock (which came about when Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Petroleum merged), or the dependent nature of so-called independent directors of RIL, or the opaque structuring of conflict-of-interest deals, Anil Ambani came out with guns blazing, accusing his older brother Mukesh of trying to diddle the shareholders of the company their father had built.
As if rejecting the truce offer made by Anil Ambani to estranged brother Mukesh, Reliance Industries Limited sources on Sunday said this was yet another attempt to present corporate dispute as a family feud.
The apex court also heard a plea for bringing back black money stashed in tax havens abroad.
RIL declined to comment on this or related allegations, saying the entire issue was in court.
RIL said RNRL has maintained that the May 12, 2005 draft agreement between the RIL and NTPC should be the basis for fixing the price of gas from the KG Basin but it has ignored the provision for government approval.
The Ambani brothers are locked in a bitter battle over the supply and price of the gas from KG basin.
The latest Ambani-sibling fight has now become a political battle.
A friend of Mukesh Ambani should not be petroleum minister
RIL now has the capacity to produce 60 mmscmd but is constrained to produce less as the government is yet to identify customers beyond the initial 40 mmscmd that had been allocated primarily to fertiliser and power producers in accordance with the Gas Utilisation Policy.
Bharti will have to deal with 15 different regulatory regimes in Africa as opposed to just one in India.
Sanjay Somany (51), the Managing Director of Hindustan National Glass and Industries Limited, was caught last evening at the airport when he returned from Chennai, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) K C Trivedi said.
Development plan for K-G basin runs for 12 years, so can't supply to RNRL for 17 years, says RIL.
At the same time, India's most valued corporate house also announced a new structure for salaries and remuneration of top executives wherein the pay packets would be capped, as against the prevailing system of commission linked to profits.
An RIL spokesperson said that the company has filed its reply to the government's petition on the gas dispute.
Now that the Bombay High Court has rejected the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas' (MoPNG) attempts to help Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) wriggle out of its 2005 contract to supply 28 million metric standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNRL), the pressure on it has increased several times over.
However, the apex court allowed NTPC to file a reply to deny the allegations, if any, levelled by RIL in its amended written statement.
The two sides had approached Supreme Court challenging a decision by the Bombay high court on June 15, which said RIL should provide 28 million cubic metres of gas per day to RNRL at $2.34 per mmBtu and both the parties should sign a necessary agreement for the same within a month.
"There would be no impact on the government at all and it would suffer no loss whatsoever. RIL would also make a profit of Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) at this rate," RNRL said in an affidavit before a bench headed by chief justice K G Balakrishnan.
Anil Ambani group firm RNRL first filed a case against RIL in Bombay high court in November 2006, alleging violation of a family pact about supply of gas from elder brother Mukesh led RIL's Krishna-Godavari gas fields. Since the financial year 2006-07, RNRL's legal and professional fees have surged nearly five-fold from Rs 3.12 crore (Rs 31.2 million) to Rs 15.27 crore (Rs 152.7 million) in the latest fiscal 2008-09.
Mukesh Ambani-led RIL said on Friday it would not be possible to supply gas to Anil Ambani group firm RNRL without the government's nod and requested the Supreme Court not to restrain it from selling gas to others.
Blaming RIL for delay in starting its Dadri power project, RNRL said it was RIL's wrongful conduct that delayed its gas-based power plant by four years. However, it had sought a direction to RIL to supply the gas immediatley to it. On July 7, the Supreme Court issued notice to RIL, RNRL and the Centre (as intervener) on cross-appeals by both the companies on their gas supply dispute.
Last week, RIL moved the apex court challenging the Bombay high court order that asked it to supply 28 mmscmd of gas to RNRL at $2.34 per mmbtu.
Asked whether he will join politics, Ambani replied in the negative, saying "I am not made for politics."
But RIL is yet to agree on the grounds that it is studying the implication of the judgement. On June 15, the Bombay high court gave the two companies a month's time to work out a firm gas volumes, price, timelines and other commercial details for sourcing the fuel from Krishna Godavari basin fields.
Vimal also plans to emerge as the leading textile brand by 2009-10, on the back of an aggressive retail presence all over India and the introduction of innovative premium products. The brand will also offer complete solutions to export markets -- from fibre to garments -- and will sharpen focus on the global automotive furnishing business.
UP dealers claim no word from RIL on revival plans.