Saturday, June 18 2005 10:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The ownership row in Reliance Empire was resolved early this morning (Jun 18, 2005) with Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother Anil reaching an agreement to divide the assets.

The Board of Directors of the flagship company RIL, chaired by Mukesh, has been summoned to meet in Mumbai shortly after 1000 hrs (IST) to put its seal of approval on the deal hammered out during a marathon all night meeting between the two sides that ended at 0700 hrs (IST) today.

As part of the settlement, high-level changes in the group companies, including stepping down of Mukesh's close aide Anand Jain as Director of IPCL, would be effected soon.

Although the restructuring and legal issues would take some time, a formal statement on settlement is expected very shortly, highly placed sources said.

Insistence from their mother Kokila Ben, widow of group's founder Chairman Dhirubhai Ambani, expedited the settlement after prolonged negotiations between the two sides that started nearly four months back based on recommendations of ICICI bank Chairman and family friend K V Kamath.

Only after the Board meeting of RIL, details of the settlement could be announced, sources said.

The fight between the two brothers started in November and witnessed a spate of allegations and counter-allegations from both the sides on operations of the group companies. Kamath had been asked by Kokila in December to work out a settlement formula along with valuation of family assets and holdings in the group.

In the longest and fiercest battle of corporate India, the feud between the brothers had kept over three million shareholders desperately waiting for the settlement.

Mukesh and Anil had met for the first time last week in connection with the settlement process. Corporate and financial honchos representing the two brothers had been working for the last four days to close a deal even ahead of earlier target date of July 6, the death anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani.