Ambani’s big gas deal with BP
On Monday the richest man of Asia and chairman of India’s biggest listed company struck a deal with BP that will see the British energy giant pump at least $7.2 billion into gas projects developed by his Reliance Industries in one of the country’s largest foreign investments.
According to Forbes, the 53 year old is the world’s fourth richest man with a net worth estimated at $29 billion.
The older son Mukesh of Reliance Industries founder Dhirubhai Ambani, is known to be soft-spoken, a vegetarian and a teetotaler, and keeps a lower public profile than his younger brother Anil.
Trained chemical engineer Mukesh Ambani dropped out of an MBA program at Stanford University, where he was a classmate of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and joined Reliance in 1981.
After the death of their father in 2002, the two brothers fought publicly, ending with a split of the family business empire in 2005 that was brokered by their mother and saw Mukesh win control of energy-based conglomerate Reliance Industries.
Ambani’s deal with BP is expected to boost shares in Reliance Industries, valued at about $70 billion, company watchers said, as it brings in capital and technology.
