The warring Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, have independently met Housing Development Finance Corporation Chairman Deepak Parekh and ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO KV Kamath in the recent past.
Industry observers feel that both Parekh and Kamath can play the arbitrator for the brothers. However, HDFC and ICICI Bank sources denied any move to actually get involved in a family issue.
Parekh is widely known as a crisis manager for corporate India. He has played a key role in sorting out some family spats and has virtually been on every important committee set up by the government. Kamath is believed to have a very good equation with both brothers.
HDFC sources said the Ambani brothers had met Parekh but the question of arbitration did not arise. A senior ICICI Bank executive said the bank had a 30-year relationship with Reliance but there was absolutely no basis in the conjecture that Kamath would be an arbitrator.
"They may have met him, but not yesterday. A bank's clients always meet the CEO," the source said.
A Reliance executive said he was not aware of any meeting between Mukesh Ambani and Kamath. However, he added that "the news of the meeting has been in the air. The Ambani family is close to Kamath for years." He also said the bank had no exposure to Reliance Industries but it had lent to the group's infocom venture.
A senior banker said despite the spat between two brothers, lenders were not uncomfortable with their exposure to Reliance Industries as the company's loan servicing capability had not been hurt by the recent developments.