The widely-speculated effort to resolve the Reliance ownership dispute between the Ambani brothers gained momentum with the younger sibling Anil having a two-hour meeting with K V Kamath, the chief of ICICI Bank and a friend of the family, who is said to be working out a formula to end the feud at the behest of Kokilaben Ambani, the widow of Group founder-chairman Dhirubhai Ambani.
Anil, vice-chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited, who is engaged in a public acrimony with his brother and RIL chairman Mukesh for nearly two months, went to the ICICI headquarters at Bandra-Kurla complex to meet Kamath.
Sources in the Anil camp confirmed the meeting but remained tightlipped about the details.
Mukesh, who is away in Sri Lanka, is expected to meet Kamath in the next few days. The two brothers had separately met the ICICI Bank chief last week also but the meetings were kept under wraps.
Sunday's Anil-Kamath meeting comes in the wake of media reports that, at a family conclave on December 28, Kokilaben, Mukesh, Anil and their two sisters Dipti and Nina had agreed that the two brothers would have to split legally and the Reliance empire would be restructured for that purpose.
The family shares and those held in privately-held investment companies totalling 34% of RIL equity were to be divided among the mother, her two sons and two daughters, according to the reports.
Kamath, fondly addressed by the Ambani brothers as uncle because of his long association with the family, could not be contacted for comments despite several attempts.
Mukesh and Anil had made their mother Kokilaben as the arbiter to resolve their feud.
Although Kokilaben has remained silent all through, sources indicated that she had suggested a formula to split the RIL equity in the ratio of 40:30:30 wherein the two brothers would get 30% equity each while the remaining 40% would be with the mother and sisters.
Following discussions among family members, particularly the two brothers had separately had with Kokilaben in the last few days, the two sides have kept their guns silent, a move construed by many to have evolved out of a tacit understanding.
The mediation efforts, wherein Kokilaben is reported to have asked Kamath to help in the valuation and restructuring process, intensified particularly after an intense boardroom battle between the two brothers on December 27.
Minutes before the crucial RIL board meeting, Anil had questioned the intentions of a share buy-back proposal, by Mukesh, saying there was more than what meets the eye. But the entire RIL board rallied behind Mukesh.
Notwithstanding the intense fight both within the boardroom and outside, the two brothers had dinner together on December 27 with Anil going to Mukesh's house to celebrate the elder brother's daughter Esha's birthday.
