No salary for Mukesh Ambani’s children. The company said in a resolution seeking shareholder approval for their appointment to its board that billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s three children will be paid only a fee for attending board and committee meetings.
While Ambani, 66, has received no compensation from the company since the fiscal year 2020-21, other executive directors, including his cousins Nikhil and Hital, are paid a salary, perquisites, allowances, and commission.
His three children, twins Akash and Isha (both 31) and Anant (28), will receive only a sitting fee and a commission on the firm’s profit.
The terms of the three appointments are the same as those of Ambani’s wife Nita’s appointment to the company board in 2014. According to the company’s most recent annual report, she earned a sitting fee of 6 lakh and a commission of 2 crore in the fiscal year 2022-23 (April 2022 to March 2023).
As there would be no salary for Mukesh Ambani’s children, Ambani, 66, announced last month at the company’s annual shareholders meeting that his three children, Akash, Isha, and Anant, would be inducted into Reliance’s board of directors (BoD).
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He also stated that he would remain the company’s chairman and CEO for another five years, with a focus on grooming and empowering its ‘next-gen’ leaders.
Reliance has now mailed a postal ballot to shareholders seeking approval for their appointment to the company’s board of directors.
“They shall be paid remuneration by way of fee for attending meetings of the Board or Committees thereof or for any other meetings as may be decided by the Board, reimbursement of expenses for participating in the Board and other meetings and profit-related commission,” the notice said.
The oil-to-chemical (O2C) business, which 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 are Reliance’s five broad verticals.
No salary for Mukesh Ambani’s children as directors of Reliance Industries Ltd.
Ambani first mentioned a succession plan at the oil-to-telecom conglomerate in 2022, when he announced that each of his three children would oversee different divisions of the company (Akash would oversee telecom, Isha would oversee retail, and Anant would oversee new energy).
He did not reveal Reliance’s mainstay oil-to-chemicals or O2C business division’s succession plan.
Reliance shareholders approved Ambani’s reappointment as CEO of India’s most valuable company at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) last month. And, as in the previous three years, he has chosen not to be paid during this time.
Nita resigned as a Reliance director as part of the succession planning, but she has been made a permanent invitee to all board meetings – a status that none of the board members have – Mukesh Ambani and other directors need shareholders’ approval for any extension beyond their current approved terms, but she will remain on the board in perpetuity.
Isha, a Yale University graduate with a double major in Psychology and South Asian Studies and a Stanford University MBA, “is driving the expansion of Reliance Retail into new categories, geographies, and formats,” according to the shareholder notice.
“She has been instrumental in the expansion of Reliance Retail’s own brand portfolio including the acquisition of some exciting Indian brands and launch of the ‘Independence’ brand,” it added.
Isha directly holds 0.12 per cent equity shares of the company.
Ambani owns 41.46 per cent of Reliance shares.
Akash, an economics graduate of Brown University, US, heads India’s biggest telecom company Jio. “At Jio, he spearheads the creation of products and services that leverage new-age technologies like 5G, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and the Internet of Things,” it said.
Anant, also a graduate of Brown University, “is driving the expansion of energy and materials businesses of Reliance and its global operations in renewable and green energy.” “Under his leadership, Reliance aims to become a Net Carbon Zero company by 2035 by building world-scale capabilities in the production of clean fuels and materials of the future, developing next-generation carbon capture and storage technologies, creating holistic and circular materials businesses, and maximizing crude to chemicals conversion,” the notice said.
Since October 2014, Akash and Isha have served on the boards of directors of both Jio and Reliance Retail. Anant serves on the boards of retail and Jio in addition to firms overseeing new energy businesses. Isha has been appointed to the board of directors of Jio Financial Services.
Mukesh Ambani has been a member of the Reliance board of directors since 1977 and was appointed chairman following the death of his father and group patriarch Dhiburhai Ambani in July 2002.
From the fiscal year 2008-09 (April 2008 to March 2009) to FY20 – 11 years – he had capped his annual remuneration at 15 crore; and since FY21, he has opted to forego his salary due to the COVID-19 pandemic, until the company and all its businesses were fully back to their earning potential.
Accordingly, he has not been paid any salary and profit-based commission for three years in a row beginning FY21.
At his request, the company Board has recommended that no salary or profit-based commission be paid to him for the new term from April 19, 2024, till April 18, 2029.
The remuneration of his cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani rose to ₹ 25 crore each, including ₹ 17.28 crore commission (unchanged from the previous fiscal year), according to the annual report for 2022-23.
Executive Directors P M S Prasad and Pawan Kumar Kapil saw their remuneration rise.
While Prasad drew ₹ 13.50 crore in 2022-23 including performance-linked incentives for 2021-22 which was paid in 2022-23. In 2021-22, he drew ₹ 11.89 crore.
Kapil got ₹ 4.40 crore, up from ₹ 4.22 crore in 2021-22. He completed his 5-year term on May 15, 2023, and has since ceased to be a director of the company.
Ambani’s wife Nita, a non-executive director on the company’s board, earned ₹ 6 lakh as a sitting fee (up from ₹ 5 lakh in 2021-22) and another ₹ 2 crore commission for 2022-23 (unchanged from the previous fiscal). She had in 2020-21 got ₹ 8 lakh sitting fee and another ₹ 1.65 crore commission.
Non-executive directors include Dipak C Jain, Raghunath A Mashelkar, Adil Zainulbhai, Raminder Singh Gujral, Shumeet Banerji, former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, former CVC K V Chowdary, and Saudi sovereign wealth fund nominee Yasir Othman H Al Rumayyan, in addition to Nita Ambani. Every independent director received a 2 crore commission and sitting fee.
K V Kamath was appointed to the Reliance board in January 2023 and received a sitting fee of 3 lakh as well as a commission of 39 lakh.
