NEW DELHI - Indian tycoon Anil Ambani has extended an olive branch to his brother in the hope of settling an ugly feud which stemmed from a family pact that split their corporate empire, but his overture has been rebuffed.
After firing nearly daily volleys at his older brother Mukesh Ambani, Anil, 50, invoked "divine blessings" ahead of Diwali, the Festival of Lights, and announced he wanted a reconciliation.
In a statement he said has a "generous heart", and declared after a religious pilgrimage that a settlement would be a present for their ageing mother. But Mukesh, 52, said he found it hard to believe that Anil sincerely wants an end to the corporate soap opera that has riveted the nation.
Analysts dismissed the peace overture as a public relations gimmick even as shares of firms controlled by the billionaire siblings rose on hopes they would reconcile.
Anil's offer came just over a week before India's Supreme Court is to hear the dispute, which centres on a natural-gas contract involving output from India's most important gas field, the Krishna-Godavari basin.
Mukesh said in a statement through his Reliance Industries that the dispute "can now only be decisively resolved by a decision of the highest court". The Supreme Court is to open hearings in the case on Tuesday.
The seeds of the feud lie in a deal between the brothers slicing up the Reliance telecoms-to-energy empire built by their rags-to-riches father Dhirubhai Ambani, who died in 2002 leaving no will.
In the 2005 pact, Mukesh agreed to sell 28 million cubic metres of gas per day to Anil's energy company at US$2.34 ($3.27) per million British thermal units (mBtu) for 17 years. That is now 44 per cent below the government-set price. Reliance Industries insists the deal stipulated the supply of gas was subject to "approval by the government". Billions of dollars are at stake. AFP
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