Mukesh Ambani

Some Lesser Known Facts About Mukesh Ambani

• He was born in a lower-middle-class Gujarati family in Aden, Yemen.

• After living in Yemen for some time, the Ambanis relocated to India in 1958. They left Yemen due to increasing political instability there.

• According to some sources, Mukesh was enrolled in a preschool in Yemen but had to leave when the family decided to come back to India.

• He lived in a two-bedroom apartment along with his parents and siblings in a chawl in Mumbai.

  

• He loved hockey during his school days.

• Anand Jain, Adi Godrej, and Anand Mahindra were his schoolmates and were some of his best friends.

  

• His father, Dhirubai, was a strict parent. Mukesh once recalled an incident and said that he and his brother, Anil, were sent to live in the garage for many days after they ate all the food prepared for the guests before they arrived. He also said that they were fed only plain chapatis and were given water for the time they lived in the garage.

• At the age of 17 or 18, his father made him a Board Member.

• He is considered a nervous public speaker.

• After completing his schooling, Mukesh enrolled at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB). He, however, left it later and joined the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT).

• While pursuing graduation in chemical engineering, Ambani used to attend college in the morning and work with his father in the Reliance office from afternoon till late night.

  

• During his graduation, he ranked among the top ten students at Bombay University.

• After graduation, Ambani and a few of his friends appeared for the Civil Services Examination but did not manage to pass it. Therefore, he enrolled at Stanford University to pursue a master’s degree in business administration.

• William F. Sharpe, an American Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner, taught him financial economics there.

• While undergoing MBA studies, Reliance received a license to produce polyester from the Indian government. As a result, he decided to quit his MBA to pursue a one-year diploma conducted under the World Bank’s Young Professionals Programme (YPP) regarding the manufacturing of polyesters.

• He, however, discontinued his MBA in 1980 as his father called him to join him in establishing a PFY manufacturing plant. He also dropped the idea of doing the diploma as his father did not want to wait to start manufacturing polyesters. In an interview, he talked about it and said,
  

  When I explained my thoughts to my father, he said, you are right in the way you have planned your things. I am starting work on the polyester plant. I said, Oh you are not going to wait for one and a half years? He said, No, I won’t wait. So, I decided to come back immediately.”

• In 1981, he formally joined the Reliance in Mumbai. He was initially placed under Rasikbhai Meswani by his father.

• Ambani played a vital role in making policies that led to an increase in the sales and manufacturing of Reliance Polyester Limited.

  

• He then went to Patalganga in Raigad, where he established a Polyester Filament Yarn Plant. He also established a petrochemical plant there.

• Mukesh and Nita Ambani had an arranged marriage. She was first seen at a Bharatanatyam performance by Mukesh’s parents, who later approached her parents with a marriage proposal.

• He established the world’s largest refinery on 14 July 1999 at Jamnagar in Gujarat with the capacity of producing 6,68,000 barrels per day.

  

• Thereafter, he established another petroleum refinery in Jamnagar with the capacity of producing 1.24 million barrels of oil per day. Following this, the city of Jamnagar came to be known as the ‘Refining Hub of the World.’

• In 2002, when Dhirubhai Ambani passed away, Mukesh and Anil took over Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) under collective ownership. However, the discord among the siblings over running the organisation grew over time.

• In 2004, Mukesh publically acknowledged the growing divide between him and Anil. He, however, stressed that the divide was more personal than professional.

• In the same year, the RIL acquired the National Organic Chemicals Industries Ltd (NOCIL). This resulted in a 70 per cent increase in the profits earned by the company.

• In 2005, Reliance was divided between Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother Anil Ambani. While Mukesh got the ownership of gas, oil, and petrochemicals units, Anil took over Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy, and Reliance Capital. They also signed a noncompetitive agreement.

• In 2006, he established Reliance Retail. Under it, he started a supermarket chain named Reliance Fresh in the same year, and by 2014, it had grown to more than 700 stores throughout India. This subsidiary of RIL earned a profit of $33 billion in 2023.

  

• In 2006, Mukesh Ambani was selected to serve as co-chair of the India Economic Summit hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

• In the same year, Reliance was penalised for indulging in market manipulation of Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL). This led to a fine of Rs. 950 crores (9.5 billion) being imposed on the company.

• In April 2006, RPL became a public entity.

• Ambani founded Reliance Digital in 2007. As of October 2021, there were more than 8,600 digital stores in India.

• In September 2008, Reliance Petrochemicals, under his leadership, detected the presence of crude oil in the basin of the Krishna Godavari River.

• In the same year, Mukesh Ambani, through Reliance, purchased the IPL team Mumbai Indian for $111.9 million. Following this, he came to be known as The World’s Richest Sports Team Owner.” He also purchased the ownership rights of the team till 2018.

  

• He is also one of the persons who started the Indian football championship league known as the Indian Super League (ISL).

• In 2010, the RIL established a plant to extract oil from the basin in Andhra Pradesh. As of 2024, it produces 1.5 million metric tonnes of ethylene and other petrochemicals per year.

• In the same year, the World Economic Forum appointed Mukesh as a member of its Foundation Board.

  

• In 2010, both Anil and Mukesh mutually agreed to cancel the noncompetitive agreement signed in 2006.

• In March 2011, Manhattan-based Bank of America appointed him as its director. With this, he became the first non-Indian to hold the directorship of the bank.

• In 2012, Ambani decided to not take his annual pay of Rs. 240 million from Reliance Industries Limited as in that year, the budget for salaries of RIL senior employees had exceeded the Rs. 150 million mark set for remuneration by the company.

• The RIL launched Jio on 27 December 2015. As of April 2024, Jio has the largest customer base in India with over 449 million users.

  

• Ambani was placed fifth among India’s philanthropic leaders as per the Hurun Research Institute of China in 2015.

• In September 2016, Jio filed a complaint in the TRAI accusing other major network providers of sabotaging their operations to prevent their growth. However, the case was later dismissed.

• Mukesh Ambani was chosen as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in the same year for his contribution to business and uplifting the petrochemical refining industry.

• In August 2017, Jio expanded its operations from providing network services to manufacturing affordable mobile phones.

• In the same year, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) sold its 76% shares in Gulf Africa Petroleum Corp (GAPCO), an oil retailer headquartered in Mauritius, to Total Marketing & Services, a subsidiary of the French multinational oil and gas company Total SE.

• The customer data of Jio users was reportedly leaked in the same year on a website named magicapk.com. Soon after, the Telecom Department of the Government of India blocked the website.

• In 2018, Reliance and Eros International Media Ltd signed a deal seeking a merger to make films.

• The net worth of Mukesh Ambani in 2018 was much higher than the GDP of Belarus.

• He was the sole Indian to be featured in the World’s Most Powerful People List made by Forbes in the same year.

• Mukesh loves watching films. He watches at least three films in a week.

• In Mumbai, Mukesh established the Jio Institute in 2018.

  

• According to the 2018 “Robin Hood Index” created by Bloomberg, Mukesh Ambani had enough money to sustain the functioning of the Indian government in case of an emergency for 18 days.

• He loves to wear a white shirt and dark trousers with a tie on most of the occasions.

• He loves branded cars and has a huge collection of them. His favourite car is Maybach. As per sources, he has more than 170 cars. The garage where he keeps his cars is known as Jio Garage.

• He has a Private Jet plane collection and gifted an Airbus to his wife on her 44th birthday.

• He owns the world’s most expensive house called Antilia, which is a 27-story house in South Mumbai, worth $1 billion with 600 staff members.

  

• In 2024, he was among the top 10 richest men in the world.

• He owns a vanity van worth more than 25 Crores.

  

• He once revealed that he never carries cash or credit cards as somebody always pays for him. He said, “Money has never meant much to me. I abhor the labels and the titles that all of you refer to me.”

• In 2019, Ambani established the Jio Platforms. Soon after establishing the company, it provides low-cost high-speed broadband services to its consumers in India.

• Mukesh helped his brother, Anil Ambani, in the same year after a court asked the latter to pay a large sum of money to a Sweden-based company named Ericson due to not returning the debt. Mukesh repaid the loan and saved Anil from facing jail time.

• On 22 April 2020, he became the richest person in Asia after a deal with Mark Zuckerberg‘s Facebook (now under Meta Platforms, Inc.) which bought about 10% of Jio Platforms. With a net worth of $49.2 billion, he surpassed China’s Jack Ma as Asia’s richest person. ^[3]The Economic Times

• In the same year, Reliance Retail purchased a 60% stake in Netmeds for Rs. 620 crore.

• He keeps himself away from alcoholic drinks and smoking tobacco.

• Reliance is also known for employing retired military personnel and cops in various positions in the Reliance Global Corporate Security (GCS). This company is not only functioning in India but outside India as well.

  

• He voluntarily gave up remuneration in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In its annual report, Reliance said that Ambani’s income for the financial year 2020-21 was “nil.”

• Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mumbai Indians emerged as the only IPL team to see an increase in brand value in 2020. It remained the most valuable IPL brand consecutively in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

• In the same year, farmers wrecked the network towers owned by Jio after rumours spread that the company supported the Indian government’s farm laws. Later, Jio accused its rival service providers of spreading the false information that Jio was one of the law’s beneficiaries.

  

• As a result of the protests and the anti-Jio narrative, around 25 lakh (2.5 million) users in Punjab and Haryana stopped using Jio services.

• In 2020, Jio Platforms was valued at approximately Rs. 5 trillion (US$63 billion). The value was more than the collective value of all other subsidiaries within Reliance.

• As per a 2020 report, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance pays taxes, which account for 5 per cent of India’s annual income.

• In 2021, the RIL spent Rs. 1,200 crore on purchasing an 85% stake in Zivame and Rs. 5,710 crore on buying a 66% stake in Justdial.

• In the same year, many tweets were made by netizens claiming that the 5G trials of Jio had led to the death of many birds due to radiation. Later, the claims were proved false as an outbreak of bird flu caused the deaths.

  

• Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) bought the famous Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire, a country club and luxury golf resort, in 2021 for his elder son Akash Ambani.

• Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings bought the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York in January 2022. It is located at Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan, this 248-room property, towering over Central Park, is frequented by celebrities and hedge fund billionaires.

  

• On 27 June 2022, Mukesh Ambani resigned from the board of Reliance Jio and handed the company over to his elder son Akash Ambani.

  

• In 2022, he bought an ultra-luxury Rolls Royce Cullinan that cost Rs. 13.14 crore. According to Regional Transport Office (RTO) officials, this was one of the most expensive car purchases in the country. The car has a personalised licence plate, and it reportedly cost around Rs. 1 crore for its Tuscan Sun colour paint job.

• In August of the same year, Ambani bought a beach-side villa in Dubai for his younger son Anant Ambani. This deal became Dubai’s biggest-ever property deal.

• He has worked in the Business Council and Asia Business Council as a member.

• The famous indigenous soft drink brand Campa Cola was acquired by Reliance in the same year for Rs. 22 crores in 2022.

• His maternal grandchildren, Krishna and Aadiya, were born in the United States of America in the same year.

• He later was appointed as a member of the India Advisory Group of the London School of Economics.

• Mukesh Ambani has also held the post of chairman of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) board.

• In August of 2023, Reliance Retail secured a $1 billion investment from the Qatar Investment Authority, entailing a 0.99% ownership stake in the company, valued at $100 billion.

• In October of the same year, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority acquired a 0.59% share in the company, investing close to $600 million.

• In Forbes magazine’s yearly billionaires list for 2021, 2022, and 2023, he consistently ranked among the top 10 wealthiest individuals globally.

• In 2023, GigaFiber, a satellite-based internet service, was launched by Reliance Jio.

• After the United Nations (UN) established the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Advocacy Group, he became one of the first members.

• He has also held numerous positions in the Union government’s National Council of Applied Economic Research and Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry.

• He secured the top position on India Today’s list, “The High & Mighty 2023: 50 Power People.”

• In the same year, he was featured in The Indian Express’ most powerful people’s list.

• Mukesh Ambani is also the owner of the Network 18 media company. Under it, Reliance partially owns the Colors TV.

• Mukesh has also served as a member of the U.S.-India CEO Forum.

• Ambani follows a very strict routine for a healthy lifestyle. He gets up at 5 am, goes to the gym, where he works out for 2 hours, reads a newspaper, and goes to the office.

• Mukesh Ambani, being the richest Indian, has often received death threats. In 2021, a green-coloured SUV (Mahindra Scorpio) planted with a bomb was parked near his residence. In 2023, he received a threat from a man supposedly from Belgium, seeking a ransom of Rs. 200 crore from him.

• The Supreme Court of India ordered the Government of India to give Z+ security cover to Mukesh Ambani and his family members due to the threat to their lives in March 2023.

  

• For two consecutive years, in 2023 and 2024, Ambani held second place in the global Brand Guardianship Index as per Brand Finance’s rankings.

• In January 2024, Mukesh Ambani and his family donated around Rs. 2.51 crore to the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

  

• In February 2024, RIL, led by Mukesh, signed a partnership contract with Viacom18, an Indian media firm, and Disney, a prominent entertainment company in the United States. This collaboration resulted in the establishment of a joint venture worth $8.5 billion.

• Mukesh Ambani has also held the Chairmanship of The British Asian Trust’s India Advisory Council, International Advisory Council of The Brookings, McKinsey & Company, and Global Advisory Council of Bank of America.

• In March 2024, Forbes named him the richest person in India and the ninth richest person in the world with a net worth of about USD117.5 billion. ^[4]Forbes ^[5]Forbes

• As per sources, Ambani hasn’t had his salary increased in nearly a decade.

• Even though Mukesh Ambani has a huge business to run, he still takes Sundays off to spend some quality time with his family members.

• Reliance Industries Limited’s net worth as of 2024 is Rs. 20 trillion.

• Mukesh and Nita Ambani hosted a three-day pre-wedding event for Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in Jamnagar, Gujarat, from 1 March 2024 to 3 March 2024. The lavish event drew around 1200 guests, including Bollywood celebrities, tech moguls like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, and Hollywood stars Rihanna and Akon.

 

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