No salary for Mukesh’s kids on the Reliance board, they will get only sitting fees
Mumbai, Sept 27: The three children of billionaire Mukesh Ambani who have been inducted onto the Reliance Industries’ board will not get salary from the company. They will only get a sitting fee for attending meetings of the board or the committee plus a commission on the company’s profit.
Ambani senior (66) has stopped taking salary from the company since 2020-21 fiscal year while other executive directors on the board including his cousins Nikhil and Hitel will get remunerations. Last month, Ambani had inducted his kids --- twins Akash, Isha (31) and Anant (28) in the Reliance board soon after had stints in different Reliance firms.
Reliance has now sent out a postal ballot to shareholders seeking a nod for their appointment as board of directors of the company.
Reliance has five broad verticals - the oil-to-chemical (O2C) business that houses the world's largest single-location refining complex and petrochemical plants, telecom and digital business, retail (both physical and online), new energy, and recently launched financial services.
Ambani first talked of a succession plan at the oil-to-telecom conglomerate in 2022, where he announced that each of his three children would head various divisions of the company (Akash to head telecom, Isha to head retail, and Anant to head new energy). He did not divulge the succession plan for Reliance's mainstay oil-to-chemicals or O2C business division.
Ambani owns 41.46 per cent of Reliance shares. As per the plan, Nita had resigned from the board
As part of the succession planning, Nita resigned as a director of Reliance but she has been made a permanent invitee to all board meetings - a status which none on the board enjoy - Mukesh Ambani and other directors need shareholders' nod for any extension beyond their current approved terms but she will continue on the board in perpetuity.
Mukesh Ambani has been on the board of Reliance since 1977 and was elevated as chairman of the company after the death of his father and group patriarch Dhiburhai Ambani in July 2002.