Chronology of events
How it started, and how it’s showing few signs of ending.
November 18, 2004: Mukesh Ambani admits in a television interview that there are “ownership issues” between him and brother Anil—but they are in the “private domain”
June 17-18, 2005: The Ambani brothers settle dispute and decide to separate their businesses with Anil taking away the newer businesses and Mukesh retaining the older ones. Mother Kokilaben D. Ambani makes the announcement in a press release
August 3, 2005: Mukesh Ambani talks about the scheme of demerger to shareholders at the annual general meeting of the company
October 21, 2005: RIL shareholders approve the demerger scheme December 9, 2005: The Bombay High Court approves the scheme of demerger
January 12, 2006: RIL signs a set of agreements with four companies— Reliance Communication Ventures, Reliance Energy Ventures, Reliance Capital Ventures and Reliance Natural Resources. Agreements included gas supply agreement and non-competition agreement with a right of first refusal— allowing either side to buy out the other in case a business was being sold. Thereafter the company boards are reconstituted allowing Anil to take over and then list these companies
November 2006: Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) challenges the gas supply agreement in the Bombay High Court, saying the spirit of the June 2005 agreement has not been followed in the January 2006 agreements; and these agreements were signed with the four companies before their management control was handed over to Anil
May 18, 2007: Reliance Energy questions RIL’s move to set up gas-based power plants for their SEZ
December 18, 2007: Reliance Energy questions RIL’s move to set up gas-based power plants in Maharashtra January 28, 2008: Reliance Capital questions RIL’s joint venture with Citibank for distribution of credit cards
May 26, 2008: Reliance Communications and South African telecom giant MTN start talks after MTN’s talks with Bharti end
June 12, 2008: RIL throws a spanner in the proposed MTN-Reliance Communication deal that would have seen MTN taking over a majority stake in R-Comm in exchange for Anil Ambani acquiring a 34 per cent stake in MTN and becoming the largest shareholder and promoter. RIL says it has the first right to buy R-Comm shares
June 13, 2008: ADAG says RIL’s designs are mala fide
June 18, 2008: R-Comm threatens criminal proceedings against RIL officials who signed the January, 12, 2006 agreement. RIL says no criminality involved in signing agreements
July 1, 2008: RIL proposes meeting on July 7, R-Comm doesn’t attend
July 7, 2008: R-Comm proposes meeting on or after July 14
July 9, 2008: MTN-R-ADAG fail to reach an agreement and extend exclusivity period to July 21, 2008
July 17, 2008: RIL seeks to kick off arbitration by appointing former Supreme Court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy as arbitrator
July 18, 2008: MTN and R-Comm call off talks citing legal & regulatory issues
