A day before the deadline of exclusive takeover talks between Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications [Get Quote] and South African company MTN expires, Reliance Industries [Get Quote] has invoked the dispute resolution clause of the non-competition agreement against RCom. However, RCom plans to go ahead with its proposed merger with MTN without taking RIL's claim into account.

Anil Ambani's executives reportedly failed to turn up for a conciliatory meeting with RIL in a city hotel at 11 am on Monday. Mukesh's top executives, including K G Ramanathan, K Sethuraman and K R Raja, waited for an hour at Hotel Oberoi's business centre for Anil's men to turn up.

RIL sent a letter to RCom by 1.49 pm, pointing to the absence of its executives. Moreover, RIL decided to invoke the 30 day conciliation period starting today, after which the matter would go into arbitration.

The meeting was a follow-up to the invitation extended last week to RCom and MTN for 'conciliatory talks' on the right of first refusal issue, but the Anil Ambani camp had not shown any interest in talks, RIL sources said. MTN and RCom are in 45-day exclusive talks that would create one of world's top 10 telecom companies, with over 115 million subscribers. However, the talks have stumbled after Reliance Industries, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, claimed the right of first refusal over Anil Ambani's 66 per cent stake in RCom.

In a statement, RIL said, "In view of the refusal of RCom to participate in the conciliation process as envisaged in the agreement, RIL is left with no alternative but to adopt appropriate proceedings against RCom, as advised". It further said that RIL has demonstrated its willingness to participate in any conciliation meeting. "In view of the refusal of RCom to participate in the conciliation process as envisaged in the agreement, RIL is left with no alternative but to adopt appropriate proceedings against RCom," it added.

RIL would invoke the 30-day period before opting for any formal arbitration and Anil Ambani cannot sell shares in the four demerged companies without first checking with it on the RoFR issue, according to the sources. The resolution of this dispute could take several months and derail Anil Ambani's MTN takeover plans.

The Anil Ambani camp indicated its readiness, by evening, to meet Reliance Industries next week to 'clarify any doubts', but Mukesh's team rejected the overture. RCom thereafter  charged that "RIL's malafide stand is now clearly established and RIL is not interested in understanding factual position or clarifying its doubts." Terming today's meeting called by RIL as "unilateral", the RCom executives said there was neither any "dispute" nor any occasion for "conciliation".

"RIL's claims are legally and factually untenable, and misconceived. The meeting, called by RIL, is not a part of any conciliation or dispute resolution mechanism and RCom reserves the right to take all actions as legally advised," RCom executives said.

Meanwhile, MTN and RCom are considering extending their exclusive talks by two more weeks, according to sources. MTN prefers arbitration rather than getting into a long legal battle with RIL that would consume a lot of time and effort.

"It is not easy to resolve the issue through court procedures. The shareholders of MTN will not agree to an unnecessary legal battle in an alien country for an immaterialised deal which would take company's funds and time."

When contacted, a MTN spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.