Anil Ambani Looking to Make Shareholders Richer

Dangling the Carrot

By Priya Nigam

Billionaire Anil Ambani's group of companies is trying to make headway with the common investor. Reliance Energy Ltd, India's second-biggest utility, now plans to consider a share buyback, less than a week after Reliance Power’s announcement of bonus shares for non-promoter stakeholders.

Previously, on Sunday, Reliance Power (RPWL) announced a bonus issue of 3:5 shares. This means that for every 5 shares held, the company would give 3 shares for free. This offer would be for non-promoters, which excludes Chairman Anil Ambani as well as Reliance Energy, which together hold about 90% of Reliance Power.

While Reliance Power garnered a record Rs11,560 crore through its IPO, the stock plummeted on listing on February 11. Shares were not hit by any company-specific issue. Rather the global sell-off in equities hit all Indian stocks and more so new shares. So, the company decided to give away free shares to boost investor confidence. Of course, this would benefit shareholders, especially because it brings down the cost of acquisition. (This is how. Say you bought 5 shares of Reliance Power at Rs430 per share. It means you spent Rs2,150 in total. But after the bonus issue you own 8 shares. So, per share you have spent Rs269. This is 40% below the IPO price). At the same time a bonus issue is also good for the company, since it issues the extra shares from its accumulated reserves. So, unlike a dividend payout, a bonus issue can be given without causing a dent in the company’s profits.

Anil Ambani has agreed to transfer 2.6% of his personal stake in Reliance Power to Reliance Energy, so that the latter company’s stake in the former remains unchanged at 45%. Following the bonus issue, Anil Ambani’s personal stake in Reliance Power has been diluted to 40%, from his earlier 45% stake.

In its latest move to appease investors, Reliance Energy has announced that it would consider initiating a share buyback on March 5. According to news reports, sources close to the matter have indicated that the Mumbai-based company has cash reserves in excess of Rs10,000 crore and would use a part of this (could be as much as Rs2,500 crore) for repurchasing its shares.

A bonus share issue and now a buyback… all indicators of a company’s financial health. And individual investors seem to be pleased with the bonus issue and the prospective buyback. Reliance Energy climbed nearly 5% to close at Rs1,697.25 in Mumbai trading on Tuesday. Shares hit an intraday high of Rs1,711.90. Reliance Power may have slipped during its listing, but closed above Rs450 on Tuesday. With another IPO in the offing, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group must be happy with its success at wooing investors.

Anil Ambani all set to be the Rupert Murdoch of India

By Vipin Agnihotri

While elder brother Mukesh Ambani is basking in the glory of being crowned the richest man of the world, younger brother, Anil Ambani is not that far behind. As a matter of fact, he is all set to become the Rupert Murdoch of India.

In my opinion, media and entertainment has been the object of his affection ever since his 360-degree separation from Mukesh Ambani. Initial signs are that ADA Group is planning to launch Direct to home (DTH) services in India shortly under the brand name Reliance blue magic.

In addition, Anil Ambani has also decided to join forces with the Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to foray into the IPTV space. Reliance’s IPTV service shall be powered by the Microsoft Mediaroom platform, which will allow Reliance to deliver completely new, connected and personalized television experiences for the Indian consumers, with number of advanced features.

It includes, video on demand, digital video recording, instant channel changing and personal media sharing. According to experts, Reliance is about to change the way consumers experience television. TV is the only major digital device that has been left out of the networking revolution and Microsoft and Reliance are now making the TV a first class citizen in the connected entertainment landscape.

The pivotal factor here is that before Reliance, IPTV in India has been pioneered by MTNL in collaboration with Aksh Optifibers in the cities of Delhi and Mumbai, but it has not become as famous as DTH. With Reliance planning to give IPTV facility throughout India by March next year, it is going to be real tough for MTNL to match the scale of Reliance. What’s more, if Anil Ambani deploys his aggressive pricing strategy in the IPTV arena, it will be almost impossible for any other competitor to pull it off, given Reliance’s head start.

Suggested Reading:

• Mukesh and Anil Ambani once again at the negotiating table

The Mukesh and Anil Ambani Portfolios

The India Street Analysis

By Sundaramurthy Vadivelu

The India Street published Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s portfolio few months ago. Mukesh Ambani was reported to be the world’s richest person by Indian media. But it was denied immediately by Reliance.

While there are many figures floating around media about their net worth, The India Street attempts to look from a different angle: their family shareholding in Reliance.

Mukesh is married to Nita and they have three children, Akash, Isha and Anant. Anil is married to Tina and they have two sons, Jaianmol and Jaianshul.

We discussed about Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani group companies in my earlier article, “Mukesh Ambani vs Anil Ambani : Which Brother's Companies are the better Investment?” as well as “Hot or Not? Ambanis on a dream run!”

Let us analyze the Ambani families’ (including Kokila Ambani) stake in Reliance group companies. We will be discussing only the shareholding in the names of family members.

The data source for the tables given below is BSE web site, www.bseindia.com and it is as on September 30, 2007.

Mukesh Ambani group companies:

Reliance Industries Limited:

Name	Number of shares	% of total shares
Kokila Ambani	3665227	0.26
Mukesh Ambani	1807923	0.13
Nita Ambani	1699073	0.12
Akash Ambani	1681595	0.12
Isha Ambani	1682195	0.12
Anant Ambani	50000	0.00

If we add all the shareholding, it amounts to only 0.75% of the total number of shares. At the current market price of Rs.2713 the market value of the family’s holding works out to Rs.2872 crores.

Mukesh Ambani family does not have a single share on their name in Reliance Petroleum Limited and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited. Interestingly, Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Capital has 1.06% stake in RIIL.

Anil Ambani group companies:

Reliance Energy Limited:

Name	Number of shares	% of total shares
Kokila Ambani	274891	0.12
Anil Ambani	139437	0.06
Tina Ambani	123812	0.05
Jaianmol Ambani	125231	0.05
Jaianshul Ambani	7	0

At the current market price of Rs.1852, the market value is around Rs.123 crores. But, their total shareholding percentage is just 0.28.

Reliance Natural Resources Limited:

Name	Number of shares	% of total shares
Kokila Ambani	3665227	0.25
Anil Ambani	1859171	0.13
Tina Ambani	1650832	0.11
Jaianmol Ambani	1669759	0.11
Jaianshul Ambani	100	0

In RNRL, Ambanis have slightly more shareholding at 0.60% and the market value is Rs.126 crores at the current price of Rs.142.

Reliance Communications Limited:

Name	Number of shares	% of total shares
Kokila Ambani	4665227	0.23
Anil Ambani	1859171	0.09
Tina Ambani	1650832	0.08
Jainmol Ambani	1669759	0.08
Jainshul Ambani	100	0

The current market price is Rs.787 and the market value is Rs.774 crores.

Reliance Capital Limited:

Name	Number of shares	% of total shares
Kokila Ambani	545126	0.22
Anil Ambani	273891	0.11
Tina Ambani	263474	0.11
Jaianmol Ambani	83487	0.03
Jaianshul Ambani	5	0

At Reliance Capital’s current price of Rs.1986 the market value works out to Rs.232 crores.

Total market value of Anil Ambani family portfolio is around Rs.1254 crores.

Conclusion:

Under the promoter and promoter group category, Reliance Industries Limited has 48 individuals/companies listed, for e.g. Petroleum Trust, Reliance Enterprises Limited etc. Similarly, the Anil Ambani group companies feature names like AAA Project Ventures Private Limited, Reliance Innoventures Private Limited, AAA Power Systems Global Private Limited, AAA Communication Private Limited, AAA Enterprises Private Limited etc. The Ambanis’ stake in these companies is not available.

Also, it is virtually impossible to know what other companies stocks they buy on their names. Obviously it is difficult to guess why they are not interested in increasing their personal stake in group companies.

Given this kind of a scenario, it is hard to estimate their actual share holding and the market value.

Sundaramurthy Vadivelu

Anil Ambani to Enter Cement Sector

By Vipin Agnihotri

The India Street has confirmation that 48-year-old CMD of Reliance ADAG, Mr. Anil Ambani has decided to enter into the cement sector. Initial signs are that Anil Ambani will set up four plants of five million tonne capacity each near his 4,000 MW coal-fired power project at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh.

In my opinion, the 20 million tonne capacity will catapult Anil Ambani led group into the third spot in the pecking order of the cement industry, after ACC and Grasim and give it a market share of around 10 per cent.

I am not really surprised with the latest move of Anil Ambani because he always goes for scale in whatever he does. It is worth mentioning in this regard that his Reliance Energy has lined up projects to produce around 24,000 MW of power. On the other hand, Reliance Communications at this moment of time has the GSM license for all the 23 telecom circles in the country. Furthermore, Reliance Communications is the leader in the CDMA segment.

What’s more, Anil Ambani has also built a big entertainment and financial services empire along the way. But despite all this, Ambani has had his fair share of controversies. Not so long ago, there was some news in the print media that the Rs 12,000 crore Reliance Power IPO would end up enriching Ambani by Rs 50,000 crore at the expense of ordinary shareholders.

Anil Ambani friendship with former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has cast doubt over his plans to set up a SEZ in the state under new chief minister Mayawati. Last but surely not the least, his long running rivalry with Mukesh Ambani- presently simmering over a disputed gas supply agreement is showing no sign of abating.

But all these issues has not affected Anil Ambani from single-mindedly pursuing his dream of making his business empire the biggest in India.

Mukesh Ambani vs Anil Ambani Which Brother's Companies are the better Investment?

Sundaramurthy Vadivelu

Disclosure Please click on the above link to view the disclosure document before reading this article. The contents may not be reproduced in any form without obtaining prior permission from the publisher. Please send your feedback

In my previous article, “Hot or Not? Ambanis on a dream run!” we discussed about Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani group companies’ stock performance. In this article let us analyze these stocks both from fundamental as well as technical perspective.

Mukesh Ambani

Anil Ambani

The combined wealth of the Ambani brothers works out to USD 78.6 billion, making them the richest Indian family and the second richest family in the world. While Mukesh Ambani’s assets are worth USD 53.9 billion, Anil Ambani’s companies are worth USD 24.7 billion. (Source: The New World’s 5 Richest Families by The India Street.)

The following table shows the stock market performance of the companies in the last 6 months and one year.

Mukesh Ambani group companies:

Scrip	6 month return	1 year return
Reliance Industries	67.31	117.76
Reliance Petroleum	130.46	173.83
Reliance Industrial Infra	484.97	435.31

Note: Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited, a Mukesh Ambani group company has now been amalgamated with Reliance Industries Limited and its shareholders have been allotted 1 Reliance share for every 5 shares of IPCL held by them.

Anil Ambani group companies:

Scrip	6 month return	1 year return
Reliance Communications	62.05	104.00
Reliance Energy	190.51	227.49
Reliance Capital	145.09	213.46
Reliance Nat’l Resources	263.39	311.79

The minimum returns in either of the Ambani group companies is 62% by Reliance Communications in the last 6 months; The maximum return is 485% by Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited.

In my previous article, “5 Great Long Term India Stock Buys” we analyzed Reliance Petroleum and Limited and found it suitable for long term investment. In our “Stock of the Week” series, we analyzed Reliance Energy Limited and mentioned that long term investors need to look out for a monthly close above 818.40 with good volumes. It closed at 1206 last month. This month, it has touched a high of 1959. In another article, “Hot or Not? Ambanis on a dream run!” we discussed about Reliance Natural Resources Limited and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited.

The daily chart of Reliance Industrial Infrastructure is shown below.

We can notice the “one sided” price movement in the above chart. After 4 consecutive 10% upper freeze sessions, the stock hit 19 successive 5% upper freeze sessions. This may be considered “over manipulation”.

RNRL closed at 52 on September 19. After 4 trading sessions, it closed at 95.30 on September 25, gaining 83.3%. Such sharp rise was definitely an unexpected one, though technically the stock had broken out in third week of July.

If we exclude these two companies, it can be seen that Reliance Industries has performed marginally better compared to Reliance Communications; Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital have performed better than Reliance Petroleum.

Ranking based on financial ratios:

The following table shows the market capitalization of the companies.

Scrip	M-Cap Rs. crores	Scrip	M-Cap Rs. crores
RELIANCE	360,779	RCOM	154,406
RPL	82,575	RELCAPITAL	43,796
RIIL	3,950	REL	36,043
		RNRL	15,792
Total	447,304	Total	250,037

Mukesh Ambani group companies’ market capitalization is much higher (more than Rs.197,000 crores).

The following tables list the P/E and P/BV ratios:

Scrip	P/E	P/BV
Reliance Industries	31.02	5.88
Reliance Petroleum	-	-
Reliance Industrial Infra	206.65	34.20

Note: According to Reliance Petroleum media release, the company has achieved over 70% overall progress in implementation of its large and complex refinery, coming up in a Special Economic Zone at Jamnagar. Based on the progress made till date, in the engineering, procurement and construction activities, RPL expects to complete the project ahead of December 2008. So P/E and P/BV ratios are not available.

Scrip	P/E	P/BV
Reliance Communications	54.96	7.52
Reliance Capital	50.85	8.42
Reliance Energy	42.36	4.17
Reliance Nat’l Resources	359.26	11.45

Due to the sharp price rise in RIIL and RNRL the P/E and P/BV ratios are high.

A P/E ratio of 10 to 17 is considered “fair” for many companies. If the P/E is between 17 and 25, the stock may be considered “growth” stock and the market may expect that the earnings are likely to increase substantially in future. However, for those stocks with a P/E of more than 25, it could be a case of “stock market bubble” i.e. overvaluation. This may be attributed to large amounts of money flowing into the market during a certain period of time.

The following table shows the P/E ratios of some of the ‘blue chip’ companies.

Scrip	M-Cap	P/E
ONGC	236,966	14.97
Infosys Tech.	105,360	26.30
ICICI Bank	122,049	37.37
Bharti Airtel	187,171	40.41
Larsen & Toubro	97,585	60.09

Reliance Industries has diversified businesses in polymers, petrochemical, refining etc. So it is difficult to compare this company with another company. Going by P/E ratios, we find that it is somewhat ‘cheaper’ compared Larsen & Toubro.

Reliance Communications has a much higher P/E compared to Bharti Airtel. IL & FS Investmart, which is an asset management company, has a P/E of 40.20, Cholamandalam DBS has a P/E of 15.17. These companies could be considered ‘cheaper’ than Reliance Capital. Tata Power has a lower P/E of 30.66 compared to Reliance Energy’s 42.36.

While Reliance Industries can be considered a ‘value’ stock (even at the current price levels), Reliance Communications, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital may be considered ‘growth’ stocks.

Conclusion:

Based on the performance in last one year and at current valuations, Anil Ambani group stocks can be considered better valued in the stock market.

Sundaramurthy Vadivelu

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Hot or Not? Ambanis on a dream run! Which of India’s Top 10 “Family Named” Stocks is Most Valuable? – Part 1 Which of India’s Top 10 “Family Named” Stocks is Most Valuable? – Part 2 of 3 Which of India’s Top 10 “Family Named” Stocks is Most Valuable? – Part 3 of 3 The New World’s 5 Richest Families

Mukesh and Anil Ambani once again at the negotiating table

By Vipin Agnihotri

I am sure that you are fully aware of the last time Mukesh and Anil Ambani negotiation across the table. It was in year of 2005, when their mother Kokila Ben oversaw the split of the Reliance empire between the two estranged brothers.

It has come into the notice of The India Street that both Mukesh and Anil Ambani are once again forced to come to the negotiating table. This time around it is the Bombay High Court that’s asking them to do so not Kokila Ben.

It is worth mentioning in this regard that few days back, Bombay High Court gave Ambani brothers a period of four month to negotiate the commercial details of a gas deal that was signed as part of the split two years ago.

According to highly placed sources, as part of the settlement, the Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries Limited would supply gas to the Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Energy’s proposed 7,000 MW power plant in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.

The question now arises: What does it mean to the Ambani brothers? In my opinion, for Anil Ambani it validates the sanctity of the deal over which Mukesh Ambani has been dragging his feet. Point to be noted here is that if the gas price and terms of supply are sorted out, Anil Ambani can look forward to getting his mega project off the ground.

On the other side of the coin, for Mukesh Ambani the court order has precipitated a four-month delay in sewing up 37 per cent of the total supply from his gas wells in Krishna- Godavari basin, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh. This is quite important since production from the $ 6 billion investment is slated to commence next year.

There were some reports in the Indian media that Mukesh Ambani lobbied the government to hold a string of cabinet level meetings to approve Reliance Industries Limited gas pricing. The good news for Mukesh Ambani is that the court has not endorsed the pricing suggested in the original contract.

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Exclusive news of Anil Ambani and Tata Group

By Vipin Agnihotri

As The India Street continues to grow in terms of readership, we are not relaxing. As a matter of fact, we are working doubly hard to give you exclusive news from the world of Indian business. Find below exclusive news of Anil Ambani and Tata Group. Hope you like it.

Anil Ambani to hit the market with Reliance Power IPO

According to highly placed sources, Reliance Power, which is the wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Energy, plans to hit the bourses with an IPO this time. Anil Ambani is quite eager to raise about Rs 8 to 10 billion to fund its ultra mega power project of 4,000 MW at Sasan.

In my opinion, the developments have even seen Reliance Energy’s share prices brighten up. Company officials refuse to comment on the IPO development but one thing is for sure Reliance Energy appears to be in high spirits. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the project is expected to be completed in next five years and will provide electricity to Delhi, Rajasthan, UP and MP.

Tata Sons go shopping

In order to extend their enterprise, the giant conglomerate Tata Group’s holding company, Tata Sons, has acquired 8.01 per cent share in Pune based Praj Industries. Point to be noted here is that the promoters of Praj- Pramod Chaudhari and his family sold 13.42 million shares for a price of Rs 251 each to Tata Sons in a block deal.

However, the Chaudharis will remain the single biggest investor in the company, which is known to be the leader in the bio-fuel technology. Ever since one of the directors of Tata Group- Kishore Chaukar held a position at the board of Praj industries, there are rumors in Indian media regarding this possibility.

In my opinion, this clearly shows that Tata is interested in entering the distilleries and waste water industry, which is expected to experience big growth in the coming years.

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Hot or Not? Ambanis on a dream run!

Sundaramurthy Vadivelu

Disclosure Please click on the above link to view the disclosure document before reading this article. The contents may not be reproduced in any form without obtaining prior permission from the publisher. Please send your feedback

The Ambanis: Anil, Dhirubhai and Mukesh

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (28 December 1932 - 6 July 2002), was instrumental in bringing first time Indian investors to stock market. After working in Gulf as dispatch clerk, he returned to India to start Reliance Commercial Corporation with an investment of Rs.15,000. It was engaged in polyster yarn import.

He started a textile mill at Naroda, Ahmedabad to manufacture textiles using polyester fibre yarn. He implemented backward integration philosophy and a petrochemical complex at Patalganga in Maharashtra was set up to produce polyesters, intermediates and petrochemicals. Reliance established another petrochemical complex at Hazira near Surat in Gujarat to manufacture ethylene, propylene, ethylene glycols, polymers like polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyester intermediates like pure terephthalic acid, polyester filament yarn etc.

His dream project, of course, was a grass root refinery. The 27 million metric ton grassroot refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat came up in 1999. Reliance has diversified into power, telecom, infrastructure, capital markets, insurance, logistics, retail etc.

At the time of Dhirubhai’s demise, Reliance Group had a gross turnover of Rs. 75,000 crore. This was 1000 times its 1976 – 77 turnover of Rs.70 crore.

Reliance came out with their first IPO in 1977 and Dhirubhai convinced people in rural Gujarat that his company would yield substantial returns to shareholders. This happened at a time when the awareness among public about stock markets was minimum.

Have his sons, Mukesh and Anil, lived up to Dhirubhai’s repuations? The answer is a big YES, as can be seen from the tables below.

Mukesh Ambani Group Companies’ Performance:

Scrip	3 month return	1 year return	5 year return
IPCL	34	50	621
RELIANCE	38	104	822
RIIL	140	138	3,542
RPL	74	150	NA

Anil Ambani Group Companies’ Performance:

Scrip	3 month return	1 year return	5 year return
RCOM	17	72	NA
REL	85	137	396
RELCAPITAL	45	196	3,370
RNRL	167	307	NA

For details about close prices on various dates, please click here.

In the last 1 year, IPCL and RCOM have gained more than 50%; All other companies have gained more than 100%. In the last five years (After Dhirubhai’s demise) RELCAPITAL and RIIL have got multiplied by more than 30 times; REL, IPCL and RELIANCE have gained more than 4, 6 and 8 times respectively.

Dhirubhai is no more; but his dreams have become true. Those who had faith in him and his companies have been thoroughly rewarded.

Let us now analyze some of the medium term charts of these companies.

In late 2004, the media reported that there was some dispute among Ambani brothers regarding ownership of group companies. The Hindu Businessline dated November 30, 2004 read:

“THE Ambani controversy was today stoked further with the despatch of another e-mail to the employees of Reliance Industries Limited, this time by the Vice-Chairman, Mr Anil Ambani, obliquely emphasising the brothers' equal status in the corporate group.

… This is the third email to the employees from the Ambani brothers. The first one was from Mr Mukesh Ambani last week, telling his employees that the Chairman and Managing Director (who is himself) is the final authority at Reliance…”

What did this mean to the stock market? See the chart below.

http://groups.google.com/group/theindiastreet/web/RELIANCE_W_150705.jpg

The weekly chart of Reliance indicates that on November 5, 2004 the stock closed at 540.35. On June 10, 2005 it closed at 566.55.

Between November 5, 2004 and December 17. 2004, the Nifty gained 160 points whereas Reliance lost 59.80 rupees, indicating the market was not quite certain about the stock. Reliance is known to perform very much in line with both Sensex and Nifty due to its weightage. But during this period it was not so.

Finally, after the accord was reached between the brothers, the stock managed to break its resistance at 650 during the week ending June 24, 2005. Technically, a “three inside up” bullish candlestick pattern was formed during first week of June. There was a huge upward gap when the resistance was broken.

The Tribune reported on June 19, 2005 about the accord as follows:

“India’s biggest industrial conglomerate, Reliance Industries Limited, will finally be split up between Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother, Anil, thereby ending a seven-month war between the two.

Kokilaben Ambani, their mother and widow of Reliance Industries Limited founder Dhirubhai, announced the broad contours of the settlement in a statement released here today.”

All the companies mentioned above are currently trading at lifetime highs. There have been no reversal signals on any of the medium term charts. But it is better two book profits in RIIL and RNRL, since both have appreciated very sharply in the last one week or so.

Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited

(Group: B1, Scrip Code: 523445):

http://groups.google.com/group/theindiastreet/web/RIIL_W_250907.jpg

The stock formed a false “head and shoulder” pattern between January 2006 and March 2007. False, because, the neckline support was not broken; Volumes were increasing as right shoulder was formed. Between May and June 2006, stock had fallen from a high of 951.70 to a low of 357.40. A bullish three inside up candlestick pattern was formed during the week ending September 7, 2007. From a close of 498 it has appreciated to 1149 (131%) in just about 11 trading sessions. It is extremely overbought in daily charts as well. So profit booking may be considered in this counter.

Reliance Natural Resources Limited (Group: B1; Scrip Code: 532709):

http://groups.google.com/group/theindiastreet/web/RNRL_W_250907.jpg

This stock made a high of 41.65 in March 2006. It had broken this resistance during the week ending July 20, 2007. However, in the last six trading sessions the stock has already gained 84%. It is quite an unusual movement since no major price rise was observed for almost 2 months after the breakout. Profit booking may be considered in the stock for the medium term.

As mentioned earlier, we need to wait for a confirmation of trend reversal for these stocks. But short term investors may avoid these stocks due to overbought conditions and a reversal is expected anytime.

Sundaramurthy Vadivelu

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Anil Ambani all set to become the next media Moghul of India

By Vipin Agnihotri

Anil Ambani is in news these days. After picking up stake in India’s premier electronic media channel Aajtak, he is all set to buy himself a bouquet of electronic channels. Indications are that Anil Ambani would be looking at general entertainment channels first and later on plans to venture into the news channel domain as well.

According to company sources, these channels were slated for a phased rollout beginning 2008. Point to be noted here is that ADAG has taken on board Ashutosh, the business head of Sahara One and Entertainment's Hindi movie channel Filmy, as the COO for its upcoming movie channels.

With his planned foray into mainstream entertainment channel, there is no doubt in my mind that Anil Ambani is all set to become the next media moghul of India.

It is worth mentioning in this regard that ADAG already has a presence in the radio business (BIG 92.7 FM), releasing music under the BIG Music label. What’s more, ADAG has been producing, distributing and screening movies through Adlabs Films, in which it holds a majority stake.

Furthermore, ADAG has already tied up with Microsoft to launch IPTV services in India. In addition, the DTH services are to be rolled out very soon. It has come into the notice of The India Street that Anil Ambani is also interested in Adlabs for which he plans to make India’s largest film distribution & cinema chain.

The top-notch officials of ADAG have been scouting for directors, producers and actors continuously. As a matter of fact, company has reportedly sent blank cheques to few filmmakers to get them onboard their new production house - BIG Motion Pictures.

Few days back, ADAG launched BigFlicks.com, a video-on-demand portal. Targeting more than 35 million non-resident Indians (NRIs), BigFlicks.com allow users to stream movies for free or download at prices ranging between $2 and $16. At this moment of time, BigFlicks.com offers 1,000 titles in Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Punjabi. BigFlicks.com will also provide music and television content.

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Anil Ambani to foray into investment banking

Anil Ambani all set to become the next big deal maker. According to sources, with India Inc making acquisitions worth at least a billion dollar every month, the Reliance ADAG Group is ready for a foray into investment and merchant banking advisory services. It has come into the notice that the company is planning to float a 100 per cent subsidiary under Reliance Capital, which is a depository participant of the two major depositories in the country and carries out retail broking under the name Reliance Money. In addition, it also funds projects and acts as a cash cow to other ADAG subsidiaries. Initial signs are that the group is in talks with a couple of foreign investment banks not having a presence in India, sources close to the development said. "The proposed entity would be a fully-owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital. RADAG is scouting for a foreign partner to form a joint venture," pointed out official at Reliance Capital. At the present juncture, Reliance Capital’s subsidiaries include Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd, Reliance Capital Trustee Co Ltd, Reliance General Insurance Company Ltd and Reliance Life Insurance Company Ltd. In theory, the total equity deals struck by India Inc in the last one-year period had crossed $50 billion, of which $46.8 billion was in 287 mergers and acquisitions and $5.1 billion was private equity investments, according to a Grant Thornton study. Point to be noted here is that investment banking firms, which act as advisors, financiers and brokers to mergers and acquisitions deals, usually earn 5 to 10 per cent in commissions. Not so long ago, Reliance Capital started its retail broking venture under the name of Reliance Money, which is trying to establish itself as a one-stop shop for customers' financial needs.

Source: Hindustan Times.com