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Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is now putting a strut in the proposed deal between younger brother, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) and South Africa’s telecom giant MTN. Mr. Mukesh Ambani in a letter to both RCOM and MTN has laid first claim on the RCOM shares that are to be swapped by with MTN.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s telecom firm, RCOM in a press release stated that in a malafide effort to disrupt the talks, the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), part of the Mukesh Ambani group has sent a communication to MTN group, making false claim of an alleged right of first refusal to buy the controlling stake in RCOM. MTN and RCOM have been involved in merger talks from the past three weeks since May 24th. If, the merger takes place it can be valued somewhere between $45 billion to $50 billion.
RIL has sent letters to both MTN and RCOM stating that it has the first right of refusal to buy controlling stake in RCOM. Anil Ambani has however refuted any such claims and has said that no such agreement was ever entered into with RIL. According to RCOM, the reason for RIL taking such a disruptive action is that it does not want the MTN-RCOM deal to fructify. A RCOM statement further maintained that the RIL claim is born out of the mounting despair and frustration at Reliance ADA Group’s continuing successes. In the meanwhile, an MTN spokesperson in South Africa has said that as far as MTN is concerned, nothing has changed and talks were proceeding as per the cautionary announcement made by it in May.
