Mukesh Ambani: Is there a single family office?

Where does the fortune of Mukesh Ambani come from?

Mukesh Ambani is an Indian billionaire businessman currently residing in Mumbai. He is the chairman, managing director, and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Ltd., a Fortune Global 500 company and India’s most valuable company by market value. The company was founded by his father, Dhirubhai Ambani, in the 1960s. Mukesh stepped into his father’s business in 1981 and took over the management in 2002 after his father had passed away. Reliance Industries Limited owns businesses across India engaged in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications, granting Mukesh Ambani the first spot in the list of the richest people in Asia with a net worth of 80.1 billion USD.

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How did Ambani’s company Reliance Industries develop?

In 1958, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh’ father, came back to India after living only briefly in Yemen to start a trading business that focused on spices and textiles. It was originally named “Vimal” but later changed to “Only Vimal”. In 1966, Reliance Textiles Engineers Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated which became Reliance Industries Limited. In 1975, the company expanded its business into textiles, with “Vimal” becoming its major brand in later years. Only two years later, the company held its IPO. Over the following years the company became a conglomerate firm and expanded its business activities to oil and gas in 1993 with Reliance Petroleum and to telecommunications in 1996 with Reliance Telecom Private Limited. Expansions into the retail market in 2006 with “Reliance Fresh” followed. Today the conglomerate company generates revenues of 92 billion USD, continuing to be India’s largest exporter, accounting for 8% of India’s total merchandise exports and being responsible for almost 5% of the government of India’s total revenues from customs and excise duty.

Is there a Mukesh Ambani family office?

According to our research team, there is no specific organization that serves as Mukesh Ambani’s personal single family office. Ambani holds almost all of his fortune in the Reliance Organization and also organizes his investments within the conglomerate firm. So you could argue, that Reliance Industries Limited is somehow his single family office.

How does the Mukesh Ambani family office invest?

Within Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani invests in various types of asset classes. Most dominant are investments in the energy sector (mainly oil & gas), real estate (he privately owns a portfolio worth more than 400 million USD) and venture capital. With venture capital he focuses on energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications. Exemplary investments include the Reliance Corporate Park in Mumbai and various startups (Grab, C-Square and Fynd).

This article is part of our detailed report “The Single Family Offices of Asian Billionaires and HNWIs“.

Picture source: Irving Martinez