India’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of the nation’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, yesterday as it settled his feud with his brother Anil over a family deal to divide the country’s biggest gas field.
The court threw out a contract between the estranged siblings involving the supply of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin off the east Indian coast.
Anil had demanded the honoring of the 2005 agreement brokered by their mother that would allow his company to buy gas for 17 years from the KG basin owned by Mukesh at a price lower than the one set by the government.
Mukesh sought to have this deal annulled in a legal fight that has captivated India with its mix of incredible wealth and family feuding.
“It is a complete victory for Mukesh Ambani,” his lawyer Sameer Parekh told reporters after the court decision.
“They have to renegotiate the agreement in six to eight weeks in accordance with government policy,” he said.
Reflecting the decision, shares in Anil’s group, Reliance Natural Resources, plunged 18.3 percent to 55.85 rupees on the Mumbai stock exchange. Shares in Mukesh’s Reliance industries rose 4.6 percent to Rs1,057 after the verdict.
The seeds of the feud lie in a deal between the brothers slicing up the Reliance telecoms-to-energy empire built by their rags-to-riches father Dhirubhai Ambani, who died in 2002 leaving no will.
In the asset split, Mukesh kept the oil, gas and petrochemicals businesses of the group’s flagship Reliance Industries. Anil got Reliance Energy, one of India’s biggest power utility firms, the phone company and finance arm.
Under the terms of the 2005 gas agreement brokered by their mother, Anil would receive gas supplied by Mukesh at a price 44 percent lower than the government-set price.
Anil, who wants the gas to fuel his group’s planned 7,800 megawatt power plant in the town of Dadripower, has accused his brother of “corporate greed” and trying “every trick in the book” to wriggle out of the agreement.
The government meanwhile has asserted its right to set gas prices, arguing the gas from the Krishna-Godavari Basin belongs to the nation and cannot be subject to a family pact and sold at cut-rate prices.
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