Rama Krishna Sangem
For the first time, in a major business collaboration between rival billionaires, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has picked up a 26 per cent stake in a Madhya Pradesh power project of Gautam Adani, and signed a pact to use the plants’ 500 MW of electricity for captive use.
Many in our country think that Ambani and Adani are bitter rivals, both in business and personal life. But, this investment shows that is not the case.
Reliance will pick up 5 crore equity shares in Mahan Energen Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd, of face value Rs 10 at par (Rs 50 crore) and will use 500 MW of generation capacity for captive use, the two firms said in separate stock exchange filings.
The two businessmen hailing from Gujarat have often been pitted by media and commentators against each other but they have for years tiptoed around each other to reach the top two rungs of Asia’s wealth ladder.
Both have big projects of renewable energy
With Ambani’s interests spanning oil and gas to retail and telecom and Adani’s focus on infrastructure spanning sea ports to airports, coal and mining, they rarely crossed each other’s path except in the clean energy business where the two have announced multi-billion investments.
Adani aspires to be the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030 while Reliance is building four gigafactories at Jamnagar in Gujarat — one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen, and fuel cells. Adani is also building three giga factories for manufacturing solar modules, wind turbines and hydrogen electrolysers.
A clash was also forecast when Adani group applied to participate in an auction of spectrum or airwaves capable of carrying fifth generation (5G) data and voice services. However, unlike Ambani, Adani bought 400 MHz spectrum in the 26 GHz band, which is not for public networks.
On the contrary, the two have been far from rivals. In 2022, a firm with erstwhile links to Ambani sold its stake in news broadcaster NDTV to Adani, paving the way for the takeover. Adani was also present at pre-wedding celebrations of Ambani’s youngest son, Anant, at Jamnagar earlier this month.
Business analysts are of the view that this collaboration between the two top tycoons of India is good for the industry in the long run. They can pool together their expertise and innovation in meeting the goals on the renewable energy front.
