Anant Ambani follows 2 older siblings, joins Jio as director
by TOI
Anant Ambani (File photo)
MUMBAI: More than five years after his older siblings were appointed to the boards of key RIL companies, Anant Ambani, the youngest son of chairman Mukesh Ambani, has also been inducted as a director of Jio Platforms. The telecom-cum-digital services company is majority owned by the Mumbai-based energy player.
With Anant’s membership, all the three children of Ambani now serve on the board of Jio Platforms, which of late attracted marquee investors such as Facebook, Silver Lake and Vista. Besides Jio Platforms, Anant’s older siblings Akash and Isha are directors of Reliance Retail Ventures. There is a chance that Anant, 25, could also be inducted onto the board of Reliance Retail.
Ambani, India’s richest person, has been betting big on telecom and retail to drive RIL’s growth in the future. His aim is to make the two units contribute as much as the core energy and materials businesses to RIL’s profits in the forthcoming years. The chairman also plans to take the consumer-facing units public at some point.
Anant, a product of US’s Brown University, joined the board of Jio Platforms on March 16, more than a month before the company announced its first investor in Facebook. Often spotted with his mother Nita Ambani at cricketing events and a regular attendee at RIL’s annual shareholder meetings, Anant is on the board of a couple of firms, including Tattvam Enterprises that holds stakes in the energy major.
RIL is in the midst of a rights offering and promoters have said that they will subscribe to their portion to maintain their holding in India’s most valued company. The Ambani family directly and indirectly holds 50% in RIL, which had a market capitalisation of over Rs 9 lakh crore at close of stock trading hours on Tuesday. It has been reported that RIL, which is building a resort in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex, will name the property after Anant. To be branded as Anantvilas, it will be a luxe offering.