Bigflix.com to invest about Rs 450 cr for expansion

December 17, 2008 · Filed Under Reliance ADAG · Comment 


Mumbai-based entertainment service provider Bigflix.com, a venture of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, today said it would invest about Rs 450 crore for expansion of its operation across the country over the next four years.

“We have fixed up a target of opening 500 offline movie rental outlets across the country during the next four years.
Read more

Tags: , , ,

Reliance Energy bids lowest for UP power projects

June 18, 2008 · Filed Under Reliance Energy · 2 Comments 

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group looks set to be awarded two major power projects with a combined capacity of 3,250 megawatt (MW) at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh after it quoted the lowest per unit cost of electricity, officials said on Friday.

The group’s Reliance Energy had made the bid for the 1,950 MW Bara project and the 1,300 MW Karchna power project of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), quoting Rs.2.64 and Rs.2.60 per unit for the Bara and Karchana power plants respectively.

Last year, Reliance Energy chairman Anil Ambani announced his company would invest up to Rs.600 billion between 2007 and 2011. The company has already bagged the prestigious 1,200 MW Rosa project in the state.

The Bara project will have three units and Karchna two, each unit with a capacity to generate 650 megawatts.

The state government had floated a global tender after it rejected last month an earlier contract awarded to Lanco Kundapalli. Lanco had quoted the lowest rates of Rs.2.88 per unit for Bara and Rs.2.83 for Karchna in the first bid that opened April 11.

“The rates offered by the company (Lanco) were on a higher side and then it was decided to invite fresh tenders from the same participating companies,” UPPCL deputy general manager Shailendra Dubey said. “The fresh bid still needs a final approval from the state cabinet,” he added.

The other giants that participated in this bid included NTPC, L&T, Tata Power, Lanco Kundapalli, and JLW. UPPCL has allocated Rs.500 million for acquiring the 3,000 acres of land for the two projects. Reliance Energy bids lowest for UP power projects

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group looks set to be awarded two major power projects with a combined capacity of 3,250 megawatt (MW) at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh after it quoted the lowest per unit cost of electricity, officials said on Friday.

The group’s Reliance Energy had made the bid for the 1,950 MW Bara project and the 1,300 MW Karchna power project of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), quoting Rs.2.64 and Rs.2.60 per unit for the Bara and Karchana power plants respectively.

Last year, Reliance Energy chairman Anil Ambani announced his company would invest up to Rs.600 billion between 2007 and 2011. The company has already bagged the prestigious 1,200 MW Rosa project in the state.

The Bara project will have three units and Karchna two, each unit with a capacity to generate 650 megawatts.

The state government had floated a global tender after it rejected last month an earlier contract awarded to Lanco Kundapalli. Lanco had quoted the lowest rates of Rs.2.88 per unit for Bara and Rs.2.83 for Karchna in the first bid that opened April 11.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Tags: , ,

Anil Ambani Group Eyeing SpiceJet

June 6, 2008 · Filed Under Reliance ADAG · Comment 
The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group (ADAG) has once again started pursuing its ambitions of entering the aviation sector. The company has initiated buoyant talks with low-cost carrier SpiceJet. Last year, Anil Ambani lost the battle to acquire the country’s largest low-fare carrier Air Deccan to Kingfisher’s Vijay Mallya.
SpiceJet is valued at Rs775 crore at the stock market and with 17 aircrafts ranks the lowest in terms of the cost of operations among airlines in India. SpiceJet operates 117 flights daily to 17 cities of India including Ahmedabad, Delhi, Goa, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Srinagar and Pune among others. Apart from Reliance ADAG, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways are also in the race to buy SpiceJet, which is looking to raise funds.
SpiceJet completed three years of operations on May 23 this year. The Tata group owns six percent stake in SpiceJet while the Dubai government investment agency Istithmar owns 13.4 percent of SpiceJet. The Indian aviation sector is believed to have made losses of at least $1 billion in the last financial year, a number that according to analysts is likely to double in fiscal 2009. The Indian airline industry has now resorted to stake sales and raised debt to stay afloat.

Tags: , ,

India’s Anil Ambani group eyeing SpiceJet - report

June 6, 2008 · Filed Under Reliance ADAG · Comment 

India’s Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group (ADAG) has begun talks to buy low-cost carrier SpiceJet, the Mint daily reported on Friday, without attributing any source.

Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways Ltd are also in the race to buy SpiceJet, which is looking to raise funds, the newspaper said.

The diversified ADAG controls India’s No. 2 mobile operator Reliance Communications Ltd , which is in talks with South Africa’s MTN in a bid to create a global top-10 telecoms firm.

“I am not meeting anybody and not thinking about diluting my stake,” the Mint quoted SpiceJet’s founder Bhupendra Kansagra as saying. “But who would not want to exit, if he is getting a right price for his stake.” Officials at ADAG and SpiceJet could not be immediately reached.

The Tata group owns 6 percent and Dubai government investment agency Istithmar owns 13.4 percent of SpiceJet.

The Indian airline industry, estimated to have made losses of at least $1 billion in 2007/08, has resorted to stake sale and raised debt to stay afloat.

Last year Jet Airways bought unlisted rival Sahara Airlines and UB group, which runs Kingfisher Airlines, bought a controlling stake in Deccan Aviation Ltd. (Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram and Rakesh Sharma; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSBOM3449220080606

Tags: , ,

Man in the news: Anil Ambani

June 3, 2008 · Filed Under Reliance Communication · Comment 

Anil Ambani, the Indian industrialist, was on a family holiday in a game park in South Africa earlier this month when the news came. Takeover talks had collapsed between rival billionaire entrepreneur Sunil Mittal, chairman of India ’s biggest mobile carrier Bharti Airtel and MTN, the South African wireless operator. Mr Ambani promptly switched from passively viewing the big game to hunting - going after one of the biggest emerging markets telecoms groups.

Last week, his mobile phone company, Reliance Communications engaged MTN in exclusive talks for an audacious reverse takeover that would put him at the helm of a group with 115m subscribers across Africa, the Middle East and India . In some estimates the deal could be worth $20bn (10 bn pounds, euro 13bn) - the largest overseas takeover tried by an Indian company.

People who know Mr Ambani, estimated by Forbes as the world’s sixth richest man with a net worth of about $42bn, say the deal is typical of his aggressive style. “He has an absolute killer instinct, he is competitive as hell,” says one industry insider from a rival company in India .

The deal, if he can pull it off, would offer a dramatic validation of his business skills, allaying any residual insecurities from the bitter public succession battle with his elder brother, Mukesh, after his father, Dhirubhai, died without a will in 2002. Dhirubhai started out as a petrol pump attendant and became legendary as the founder of one of India ’s biggest private companies, Reliance Industries an oil and petrochemicals group. He remains revered among Indian retail investors for his Midas touch, an Indian Warren Buffett.

Mr Ambani was born in Bombay in June 1959. He earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Bombay and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to India to join the family company and became co-chief executive officer in 1983, when he began to earn a reputation for financial innovation. Under their father, Mukesh was charged with project management while Anil took care of marketing and fundraising.

The eventual succession battle took seven months to resolve, when their mother brokered a deal. As part of the settlement in 2005, Anil received about 30 per cent of Reliance’s assets, principally its telecoms arm, now known as Reliance Communications, and its financial services and energy divisions.

Anil revered his father - he still starts press briefings with a floor-to-ceiling slide of Dhirubhai. “This is the first time he’s on his own, there’s no father or brother around to help. He’s very driven to prove things to himself rather than anything else,” says one person who has worked with both brothers.

Since 2005 he has pursued bold initiatives. These include India ’s biggest initial public offering, the $3bn listing of Reliance Power, in January to a $1bn deal, announced this month, to make films with illustrious Hollywood groups from George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions to Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment. When he took over the group in 2005, its market capitalisation was about $5bn. Now it is $75bn.

The Bollywood connection is not just business. He is at ease in the vibrant social set and close friends with the family of Amitabh Bachchan, the Bollywood superstar. He is also married to Tina Munim, a former Bollywood actress, with whom he has two children.

The family lives in south Mumbai in one part of an apartment block he shares with Mukesh, (the latter is, however, building a $2bn, 27-storey home, which could erase fears of ever invading each other’s personal space). The two estranged brothers work different hours, so rarely meet in the elevator. Anil arrives at work by helicopter at his business park by 9.30am and returns about 12 hours later. Mukesh starts at midday and finishes by midnight.

Anil is a devout Hindu and never drinks or smokes. Although described as “a health freak”, he likes his food spicy hot, so much so that one person remarked he has food with his chilli, not vice versa. After being teased about his weight, he took up marathon running and often runs 100km a week. He has become a familiar sight in his Wharton T-shirt running a 15 km loop along Marine Drive, the half-moon boulevard that defines south Mumbai’s seafront. “He runs on a treadmill at a speed of some 14km per hour and on the streets of Bombay at a speed of 12km per hour, so frankly, he’s a man in a hurry,” says the person who knows the brothers.

He is not immune to the allure of fast cars. He was a fan of Porches and Lamborghinis, but today prefers his Range Rover, more practical for Mumbai’s pot-holed roads. He retains a love of driving and asks his chauffeur to move aside and sit in the passenger seat whenever he has time to take the wheel.

For all the blistering corporate activity, Anil’s critics argue that he has yet to prove he can build businesses as well as his brother Mukesh, who some see as a genius at executing large projects, compared with Anil who is better known as a gifted and articulate presenter. “He has an unbelievable grasp of facts and numbers, he’s something of a financial genius and a genius at understanding capital markets”, said one executive from a rival company. “What he is lacking is the ability to put strong people around him whom he will give rope to, so as a result, he hasn’t attracted as high quality a team around him as his brother has.”

Anil’s competitors also charge him with being too close to regulators, with his businesses benefting from regulatory loopholes, such as in building his mobile network. He has strong political ties and was elected in 2004 as an independent member of the Rajya Sabha, Upper House, in June 2004. He resigned in 2006.

Moreover, not everything has gone right. Reliance Power, after its blockbuster IPO in January, plummeted 17 per cent on its trading debut the following month amid the credit crisis. Worried that the fall could damage Reliance’s reputation for always rewarding shareholders, Mr Ambani compensated them by issuing them with free shares.

Read more: http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2008/may/31reliance.htm

Tags: , ,

Reliance Comm forays into IT space

May 2, 2008 · Filed Under Reliance Communication · Comment 

Reliance Comm forays into IT space
Sify - Chennai,Tamil Nadu,India
Reliance Communications, the flagship company of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is broadening its business canvas by foraying into the IT sector. …

Tags: ,

Reliance Natural Resources net profit more than double

April 28, 2008 · Filed Under Reliance Natural Res · Comment 

Reliance Natural Resources net profit more than double
By India eNews
Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has posted a net profit of $17.14 million (Rs.686 million) during 2007-08 as compared to $7.21 million the previous fiscal.

Tags: , ,