07-29-2009, 08:05 PM
<b>Lights Go Out in New Delhi as Billionaire Ambani Brothers Feud</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->July 29 (Bloomberg) -- <b>About 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of New Delhi, along a rutted dirt track through fields of corn and barley, lies an empty plot of land where a power plant was supposed to have stood, pumping electricity to alleviate blackouts in Indiaâs capital.</b>
Instead, there are rows of freshly planted saplings, two rusting corrugated metal sheds and a sign on one of them reading, âReliance Energy Generation Ltd.â
<b>The plant is four years late and a victim of a corporate feud between Indiaâs richest resident billionaires, Mukesh Ambani, 52, and his brother Anil, 50.</b> The two split the Reliance group in 2005 following a fight for control, three years after their father and the companyâs founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, died without leaving a will. The conflict has persisted with a legal spat over supply of gas from Mukeshâs company that Anilâs plant needs.
<b>âThe loser is not just the brothers, but the whole country,â </b>said Walter Rossini, who manages $283 million in an India fund at Aletti Gestielle in Milan. Power shortages impede development in India as more than 400 million lack electricity and supply falls short of peak demand by 16.6 percent, the World Bank said in June.
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Instead, there are rows of freshly planted saplings, two rusting corrugated metal sheds and a sign on one of them reading, âReliance Energy Generation Ltd.â
<b>The plant is four years late and a victim of a corporate feud between Indiaâs richest resident billionaires, Mukesh Ambani, 52, and his brother Anil, 50.</b> The two split the Reliance group in 2005 following a fight for control, three years after their father and the companyâs founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, died without leaving a will. The conflict has persisted with a legal spat over supply of gas from Mukeshâs company that Anilâs plant needs.
<b>âThe loser is not just the brothers, but the whole country,â </b>said Walter Rossini, who manages $283 million in an India fund at Aletti Gestielle in Milan. Power shortages impede development in India as more than 400 million lack electricity and supply falls short of peak demand by 16.6 percent, the World Bank said in June.
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