Anil Ambani

Anil Ambani
4 June 1959 (age 52) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Born

Residence

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Nationality

Indian

Alma mater

University of Mumbai University of Pennsylvania

Occupation Chairman of Anil DhirubhaiAmbani Group $8.8 billion (2011)[1]

Net worth

Religion

Hinduism

Spouse

Tina Munim 2[2]

Children

Relatives

MukeshAmbani (Brother)

Anil DhirubhaiAmbani (born 4 June 1959) is an Indian business baron and chairman of Reliance Anil DhirubhaiAmbani Group, one of the largest private conglomerates. Anil's elder brother, MukeshAmbani, is also worth more than 29 billion dollars, and owns another company called Reliance Industries. As of 2011, he is the fourth richest Indian with a personal wealth of $8.8 billion, behind MukeshAmbani, Lakshmi Mittal and AzimPremji. He is a member of the Board of Overseers at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur; Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the

Central Advisory Committee, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In March 2006, he resigned. He is also the Chairman of Board of Governors of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar.

Career
Ambani joined Reliance, the company founded by his late father DhirubhaiAmbani, in 1983 as Co-Chief Executive Officer and is credited with having pioneered many financial innovations in the Indian capital markets. For example, he led India's first forays into overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global depositary receipts, convertibles and bonds. He directed Reliance in its efforts to raise, since 1991, around US$2 billion from overseas financial markets; with a 100-year Yankee bond issue in January 1997 being the high point, after which people regarded him as a financial wizard[citation needed]. He along with his brother, MukeshAmbani, has steered the Reliance Group to its current status as India's leading textiles, petroleum, petrochemicals, power, and telecom company. He has been linked with several starlets in his long career including his current wife of more than 15 years. He is a close friend of movie star Amitabh Bachchan and SubrataRoy.One of his major achievements in the entertainment industry is the takeover of Adlabs, the movie production to distribution to multiplex company that owns India's only dome theatre and the recently announced joint venture worth US$ 825 million with Steven Spielberg He has been embroiled in a dispute with his brother, MukeshAmbani, over the supply of gas from the latter's KG basin. He recently topped Business Sheet's "world's biggest loser" list of business leaders who lost money in the Late 2000s recession,[4] losing $32.5 billion in 2008, which brought him out of the top ten list to number 34 in 2009.

Assassination attempt
On the evening of 22 April 2009, mud, gravel and pebbles were found in his 13-seat helicopter VT-RCL's (a Bell 412) gearbox.[5] Despite the gear box being located at a height of 10 feet from the ground, the gravel and pebbles were put in the filler cap in the gear box. A senior pilot of Reliance Transport and Travels Pvt. Ltd., Captain RN Joshi filed a complaint with the Mumbai Police Commissioner's office, Maharashtra Chief Minister's office, Maharasthra Home Minister's office, Chief Secretary's office, Joint Commissioner of Police's office and also at the Santa Cruz Police Station. The helicopter was standing outside a hangar at the Mumbai Airport when the sabotage was found by Bharat Borge, a technician for Air Works. Borge was found dead on April 28, 2009 on Mumbai's suburban railway tracks between Vile Parle and Andheri. A letter was also found with him. Railway Police believes that he might have been run over by the Churchgate-bound fast-

local. "Borge's mysterious death created a flutter, lending credence to Anil Ambani's charge that certain 'rival business groups were trying to eliminate him'. " The post-mortem conducted on Bharat Borgerevelated that he died of shock due to multiple fractures, resulting in brain haemorrhage.[8] There was also a letter found in his pocket written in Marathi saying "I haven't done anything wrong. That day, some Reliance people came and spoke to me. I didn't tell them anything. One of them took my number and said that he'll talk to me later. I felt they were using me. I am writing this letter after thinking all night. It looks like the blame will be on me. I think the investigation is on the right track and truth will emerge soon." Investigators later said that Borge's death was an accident and not suicide. Airworks India Engineering Pvt. Ltd., the company that maintains the helicopter, was questioning its employees in the case.

Awards and recognition

Anil Ambani(right) with NarendraModi during VGGIS 2003

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Voted the 3rd most powerful person in India in the 2009 India Today Power List, in March.[11] Voted Businessman of the Year 2006 by Times of India-TNS poll[12] Adjudged as the CEO of the Year at the prestigious Platts Global Energy Awards for 2004. Voted as 'MTV Youth Icon of the Year for 2003' in September 2003. Conferred 'The Entrepreneur of the Decade Award' by the Bombay Management Association, October 2002. Awarded the First Wharton Indian Alumni Award by the Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) in recognition of his contribution to the establishment of Reliance as a global leader in many of its business areas, December 2001. Conferred the ' Businessman of the Year 1997' award by India's leading business magazine Business India, December 1997.

Personal life
Anil Ambani is Gujarati Indian. He is married to Indian Bollywood Actress Tina Munim and has two sons Anmol and Anshul. He has taken part in the Mumbai Marathon race. Ambani is also a fan of Coca-Cola Championship club, Newcastle United and was extremely close to buying the club in September 2008. In June 2004, Anil was elected as an Independent Member of the RajyaSabha - Upper House, Parliament of India with the support of the Samajwadi Party. He wakes up daily at 4:00am, checks the news and then goes for a run. He drinks 6 litres of water every day and likes to eat PavBhaji.

Travel
He has a Bell 412 13-seat helicopter, which he purchased in 2001.

English Premier League

Ambani was in talks with Everton officials over a deal to takeover the club. Before this he was also on the brink of buying Newcastle United. He is now believed to be keen to re-kindle his interest in Everton as Chairman Bill Kenwright has admitted he will now actively seek to sell his shares due to the collapse of the clubs Destination Kirkby stadium project.

2G Spectrum Scam Controversy

On 16 February 2011, Ambani was interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and is allegedly a suspect in the 2G spectrum scam.[18]Ambani was also jointly interrogated with the arrested and chargesheeted former telecom minister A Raja and the arrested and chargesheetedSwan Telecom promoter ShahidUsmanBalwa on the same day at the CBI headquarters for over an hour as investigators tried to reconcile their individual claims about Swan Telecom, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the 2G specturm scam. On April 02, 2011, the CBI filed its first 80,000 page chargesheet in the 2G spectrum scam before a Special Court in Delhi naming nine individuals and three companies. It said the wrongful acts of the accused deprived the government exchequer of possible revenues amounting to INR Rs 30,985 crore (USD $ 6,983,322,233). On April 05, 2011, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Indian Parliament questioned Ambani about his company's stake in Swan Telecom on a day when a number of senior executives from various telcos faced tough questions in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.[21] Reportedly Ambani and the Unitech Wireless Chairman, Mr Sanjay Chandra, sidestepped and evaded key questions from the Public Accounts Committee on their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. The CBI investigation into the 2G spectrum scam revealed that Ambani and wife Tina Ambani were the only two individuals with unlimited powers to transfer money and make payments for

the seven Anil DhirubhaiAmbani Group (ADAG) companies that have been under the CBI scanner for their links to the 2G scam-linked Swan Telecom. This testimony was provided by AmitKhot, deputy branch manager of ICICI Bank's Mumbai, Nariman Point branch, where these seven companies have their accounts. The CBI had submitted this testimony to the 2G spectrum scam trial court.