Ambani settlement under public scrutiny

The peace plan rolled out by the Ambanis last week was lapped up without any questions by investors, but the deal to split the Reliance business empire has drawn reactions ranging from anger, indifference to even sadness from an unlikely quarters -- the public.

In a country where only 25 million of the over one billion population are estimated to hold shares, the spat and settlement between brothers -- Mukesh and Anil -- has become a pet topic for scrutiny among the public, who do not have even remotely anything to do with the capital market, leave alone Reliance's fortunes.

"I know Mukesh has got companies with higher profits and Anil has got firms that can generate profit in the longer-run, but somehow I feel it was an unfair deal," says Delhi-based homemaker Aditi.

"What I remember from reading newspapers is that the elder brother got a better deal," said Mallica Mishra, a student.

But Sneha Duggal, a research scholar, differed, "I feel Anil got away showing his brother Mukesh in poor light because of his media-savvy attitude."

Anil, a former MTV youth icon and a Rajya Sabha MP, got Reliance Energy, Capital and Infocomm as part of the settlement.

While the net profit of the three companies are just a little over Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion), the profit of RIL and IPCL which went to elder brother Mukesh is in the region of Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion).

The deal to split the group, which was struck on Saturday, has presented itself as an object of intense discussion – be it in bus stops, canteens or offices.

But then there are others, who were indifferent to what was happening in the capital market, like Left-leaning students in the capital's red bastion -- Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"We have been going through the headlines. It is all their internal problem. No matter who gets what, nothing is going to affect the common man, as only a fraction of Indians are active in stock markets," said Arun Kumar, a Students' Federation of India activist.

Also there were those who felt sad about the split in what was hitherto the largest private sector conglomerate, with revenues of over Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1000 billion).

"It is really sad that the father built such a great business house and the sons tore it apart," lamented K C Kaingade, an executive with a private company here.

Even as global rating agency's are reviewing the rating for various Reliance group companies, the decision to divide the group would be a topic of discussion for a long time.