Ambanis fight their way to another Forbes list

FIGHT TO FAME: Ambanis figure in the latest Forbes list of Billionaire Family Feuds.

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New Delhi: Sometimes a fight can be the route to fame. Mukesh and Anil Ambani have yet again made it to a list of richest people compiled by Forbes, but this time the recognition is not only for their business acumen.

Forbes, in its latest list of "Billionaire Family Feuds", has bestowed the Ambani brothers with the recognition because of their fight over Reliance since the death of their father Dhirubhai Ambani.

Calling their fight a “silver lining”, the magazine has detailed how the fortunes of the brothers have continued to rise even though they have been at loggerheads. Ten families have made it to the list with the Ambanis being the only ones from India.

"Sometimes fighting has a silver lining, as has been the case for Indian brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani. Unable to get along, the brothers began fighting publicly in late 2004 for control of Reliance Industries, one of India's largest conglomerates. The situation became so untenable that their mother Kokilaben brokered a court- approved peace settlement that entailed divvying up the family businesses," the US business magazine wrote about the siblings in a report in its latest edition.

The magazine reports that in 2005, the brothers had a collective net worth of $7 bn, but fortunes changes soon after. In the Forbes' March 2007 list of world's richest persons, Mukesh was ranked at 14th place with $20.1 billion and Anil followed with a net worth of $18.2 billion ranked at 18th.

According to Forbes, the bickering is still continuing between the two brothers despite their mother brokering a settlement to divide the family assets way back in June 2005. "Anil has taken Mukesh to court a couple of times, most notably over a crucial gas-supply agreement. The recent court ruling gives the brothers four months to renegotiate a deal,” the report says.

But the magazine also commends that fact the infighting and the split has not affected the stock prices of the individual companies, which are making them much richer than what they were when the fight first started.

The other billionaire family feuds mentioned in the list include a then 19-year-old member of the Hyatt's Pritzker family, who successfully sued her father and almost a dozen other relatives, and a father and his beauty-queen fifth wife suing his son over the family fortune.

The Ambani family is the only one from India and half the list is dominated by American families. There are also feuds involving families in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

PTI reports Forbes has also listed the fight involving late celebrity actress and former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, who battled her stepson, of much higher age than her, for about a a decade to get the rights over the fortunes of her late husband.

While the case was yet to be resolved, both Smith and her husband died. They were married for just a month.

"For these wealthy dynasties, there just doesn't seems to be enough money in the world to convince them to get along. Instead they turn on each other, and very often, take their relatives to court.," the magazine said about the families mentioned in the report.