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Forbes, in its
latest list of "Billionaire Family Feuds", has bestowed the
Ambani brothers with the recognition because of their fight over
Reliance since the death of their father Dhirubhai Ambani.
Calling their fight a “silver lining”, the magazine has detailed
how the fortunes of the brothers have continued to rise even
though they have been at loggerheads. Ten families have made it
to the list with the Ambanis being the only ones from India.
"Sometimes fighting has a silver lining, as has been the case
for Indian brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani. Unable to get along,
the brothers began fighting publicly in late 2004 for control of
Reliance Industries, one of India's largest conglomerates. The
situation became so untenable that their mother Kokilaben
brokered a court- approved peace settlement that entailed
divvying up the family businesses," the US business magazine
wrote about the siblings in a report in its latest edition.
The magazine reports that in 2005, the brothers had a collective
net worth of $7 bn, but fortunes changes soon after. In the
Forbes' March 2007 list of world's richest persons, Mukesh was
ranked at 14th place with $20.1 billion and Anil followed with a
net worth of $18.2 billion ranked at 18th.
According to Forbes, the bickering is still continuing between
the two brothers despite their mother brokering a settlement to
divide the family assets way back in June 2005. "Anil has taken
Mukesh to court a couple of times, most notably over a crucial
gas-supply agreement. The recent court ruling gives the brothers
four months to renegotiate a deal,” the report says.
But the magazine also commends that fact the infighting and the
split has not affected the stock prices of the individual
companies, which are making them much richer than what they were
when the fight first started.
The other billionaire family feuds mentioned in the list include
a then 19-year-old member of the Hyatt's Pritzker family, who
successfully sued her father and almost a dozen other relatives,
and a father and his beauty-queen fifth wife suing his son over
the family fortune.
The Ambani family is the only one from India and half the list
is dominated by American families. There are also feuds
involving families in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong and
Switzerland.
According to reports Forbes has also listed the fight involving
late celebrity actress and former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole
Smith, who battled her stepson, of much higher age than her, for
about a a decade to get the rights over the fortunes of her late
husband.
While the case was yet to be resolved, both Smith and her
husband died. They were married for just a month.
"For these wealthy dynasties, there just doesn't seems to be
enough money in the world to convince them to get along. Instead
they turn on each other, and very often, take their relatives to
court.," the magazine said about the families mentioned in the
report. |