Reliance vs Vedanta
RELIANCE POWER EXTENDS ITS EMPIRE
Let reliance Takeover pakistan instead
RoC gives clean chit to RIL-Reliance Petro merger
An interesting corporate battle lies ahead for the India Inc as the London- based Vedanta Group headed by the one and only Anil Agarwal is all set to acquire a controlling stake in $9.6 billion Cairn India. Agarwal’s foray into oil and gas will definitely pit the 56-year-old chairman of Vedanta Resources against Reliance Industries, making it the first significant domestic challenge to Mukesh Ambani’s monopoly in the oil and gas sector.
Both the Reliance and the Vedanta are a perfect corporate success story so far in their respective fields of petroleum and metals, but so far there has been no competition between the two business stalwarts. But, a few years down the line things will be entire different as the Vedanta Group makes a foothold in the sector.
The Reliance Industries is the nation’s biggest refiner and petrochemical maker at present, from starting as a textile firm four decades ago. It has a unique history of dominating businesses with monstrous capacities in any field it ventures into, including refining and petrochemicals. Its scale of operations leads to such economies that most other businesses become unviable as they struggle to match RIL’s prices. On the otherhand, Anil Agarwal, who built a scrap trading business into the nation’s largest metals company, is also an interesting story to read.
The two business houses may compete head-on in bids for oil & gas blocks whenever they are auctioned, power projects that the government invites bids for, and refining, if Vedanta sets up one to extract the best out of the latest deal.
Reliance now says it is not interested in Cairn India and it is unlikely to bid for oil blocks for the next few years as it invests over $7 billion in shale gas ventures in the US. But experts believe that the ultra mega power projects and a refinery by Vedanta could become the potential trouble spots. RIL and Vedanta will complement each other due to the scarcity in power and hydrocarbon sectors in India. But if Vedanta forays into refining, it can lead to conflict.
The investors and corporate wizards in India and the world are watching the situation with interest. Only time will tell how the drama between Anil Agarwal and Mukesh Ambani eventually unfolds.
