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Ambani vs Ambani: Anil's group says RIL foiling deal
Published on Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 22:56, Updated on Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 23:10 in 
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New Delhi: The Ambani brothers may be heading for another confrontation. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group on Friday accused Reliance Industries Ltd of attempting to "sabotage" its potential deal with South African telecom giant MTN.
Reliance Industries, which is owned by Mukesh, has written to MTN saying that it has right of first refusal over a sale of controlling stake in Anil’s Reliance Communications. Effectively, what Mukesh’s group said was that any sale of a controlling stake in Reliance Communications to anyone but Reliance Industries was illegal.
Reliance Communication, in a statement, called the claim by Reliance Industries “legally and factually untenable, baseless, and misconceived."
"RIL is seeking to disrupt the creation of one of the world's most valuable telecom combinations," PTI quoted an unnamed Reliance Communications official as saying.
Reliance Communications said Reliance Industries had made a claim of right of first refusal to buy the controlling stake in it. The claim was based on an agreement made when Reliance Communications was under the control of Reliance Industries.
After a protracted feud between Anil and his elder brother Mukesh the two reached a settlement in 2005 to split the sprawling Reliance business empire.
Mukesh, ranked the world's fifth richest man by Forbes magazine, took control of oil and petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries, which has since become India's most valuable firm.
Anil, ranked as the sixth richest by Forbes , established the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) and entered telecom, financial services, infrastructure, entertainment and power.
Reliance Communications is the flagship company of ADAG. Reliance Communications, valued at about $26 billion, is the second-largest mobile phone operator in India.
Reliance Communications said Reliance Industries’ claim would not delay its tie-up talks with MTN Group. A Reliance Communications spokesman said on Friday the talks, which could create a top-10 global telecom firm, were progressing well.
In Johannesburg, MTN spokeswoman Nozipho January-Bardill told Reuters talks were continuing. "As far as we are concerned nothing has changed," she said.
A Reliance Industries spokesman said: "We are not commenting on this."
Reliance Communications and MTN began talks last month after Reliance's larger Indian telecom rival, Bharti Airtel, and MTN failed to agree on the structure of a proposed tie-up.
(With Reuters and PTI)
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