MUMBAI, June 16 (UPI) -- India's Ambani brothers, among the world's wealthiest, find themselves at widening odds over a merger deal involving South African telecom giant MTN.
The issue between Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd.,and his younger brother Anil's Reliance Communications may be headed to court for resolution.
The brothers, who took over their late father's business and built their entities into India's largest companies, are each estimated by Forbes to be worth more than $40 billion.
The dispute is over Mukesh Ambani company's claim of a right of first refusal over Anil's firm in the MTN deal with a threat of lawsuit if the $70 billion transaction is concluded. Anil Ambani's group has threatened similar action to claim costs and damages from Reliance Industries, the Financial Times reported.
The proposed merger would create a mammoth mobile operator with 115 million subscribers in Africa, the Middle East and India, the Times report stated, adding in the deal Anil Ambani would give up most of his 66 percent stake in Reliance Communications in exchange for a 34.9 percent share in the new entity.
Both MTN and Reliance Communications say their talks are going on despite the claim of right of first refusal from the older brother's group, which says it is based on a 2006 agreement. Anil Ambani's group says that agreement was never ratified, the report said.
