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Let us admit first: We do
not know if the Ambanis are going to part ways. We
do not know if the Reliance companies will be
divided among Mukesh and Anil. We do not know if
Dhirubhai Ambani left a will or not. We do not
know if the Ambani brothers have entrusted the
ownership of all Dhirubhai assets to their mother
Kokilaben.
Nor does most of the media
who have put out informed comments about the
happenings in what is called the first family of
Indian business. Let us first get the facts right.
DWS will put out opinion
pieces later.
The "split story" bloomed
on TV on Thursday, November 18. Mukesh Ambani, the
elder of the two Ambani brothers, was leaving a
function in Mumbai around 10.00 at night where
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered a lecture on
Innovation. When Mukesh was leaving, a CNBC TV
crew caught him on the sidelines for a quick
one-to-one. None of the other media personnel were
present.
The CNBC anchor Menaka
Doshi asked Mukesh Ambani about rumours of an
impending split in the Reliance family. Menaka
Doshi went so far as to say that if Mukesh is not
comfortable to have the camera on, she is willing
to switch it off for an out-of-record comment.
Mukesh was unfazed, and answered -- without asking
for the camera to be switched off -- that there
are "Ownership Issues" in Reliance, "but they are
in the private domain." He went to say that
Reliance is a professionally managed group. The
next day, Mukesh Ambani left for US.
CNBC had its scoop. At
night, the channel aired the edited footage. Not
any noticed that night or even till half of the
next day. No newspaper carried any story citing
the TV report.
The next day, news agency
Press Trust of India (PTI) picked up the news and
flashed it around afternoon time, which is when
the sleeping journalists realised that they had
missed a humongous story. Even those who saw
Mukesh Ambani on TV did not, in their wildest
dreams, imagine that he was talking about
"ownership issues."
The stock market's
reaction was instant. Reliance Group stocks,
including Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy
(formerly BSES), Reliance Industrial
Infrastructure and IPCL took a major hit, even
when the overall market sentiment was positive. To
many, this did not come as a major surprise, since
Reliance stocks have been losing ground steadily
in the past one month. This led to rumours that
someone knew what was brewing and sold the
Reliance stocks well before the avalanche.
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