Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani, has been appointed as a director of Reliance New Energy Solar and Reliance New Solar Energy, expanding his role in the family business. The two entities were incorporated before RIL unveiled its green energy plans at its annual shareholder meet on June 24.
In February this year, Anant, 26, was inducted as a director of Reliance O2C and a year before that he was appointed on the board of Jio Platforms, where his siblings Isha and Akash too are members. While Mukesh Ambani, 64, hasn’t yet spelt out succession planning at RIL, questions like ‘who’s next?’ have started popping up within the investor community. In Ambani’s own case, after the death of his father, RIL founder Dhirubhai Ambani, in 2002, there was a feud over succession between him and his brother Anil.
Besides Jio Platforms, Isha and Akash, the 29-year-old twins, are on the board of Reliance Retail Ventures. With Anant’s latest board appointments, all the three children now have representation in RIL’s key businesses. After the recent separation of the refining and petrochemicals unit to Reliance O2C, RIL looks similar to Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group’s diverse businesses. RIL is also paving the way for initial public offerings of Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail Ventures, which are expected to take place in the near future.
