Mukesh Ambani: Asia’s wealthiest man bags a rich prize | Financial Times:
Monday was meant to be a landmark day for Saudi Aramco, as the state energy giant released its first-ever half-year earnings report ahead of a planned flotation. But, unexpectedly, the communications strategy was dictated out of a rowdy Mumbai auditorium.
To the delight of hundreds of fawning shareholders, Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, announced a yet to be completed deal for Saudi Aramco to take a 20 per cent stake in his conglomerate Reliance Industries’ refining and petrochemicals division, valuing it at $75bn. The deal would be the largest in Reliance’s history and one of the biggest foreign investments in India. The irrepressible chairman of the $120bn company announced that “the future of India — and also the future of Reliance — has never looked brighter”.
Saudi Aramco is the latest in a string of businesses, from oil and gas company BP to luxury jeweller Tiffany, to tie its fortunes to Mr Ambani, a man who inspires both respect and fear among peers and would-be competitors. Since inheriting the oil and petrochemicals business of his father’s conglomerate in 2005, the 62-year-old tycoon has built perhaps the most ambitious corporate empire in Indian history.
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