NEW DELHI: Burying the hatchet, warring Ambani brothers on Sunday dumped the contentious non-compete agreements signed in 2006 as part of the division of Reliance empire, saying this would eliminate any room for “disputes”.

As a result of this, younger sibling Mr Anil Ambani-led group can enter into oil, gas, retail and petrochemical businesses while elder Mr Mukesh Ambani-led RIL could make forays into telecom, power and financial sector arena.
The agreements, approved by the boards of RIL and ADAG group companies, were announced within days of the two brothers meeting the Prime Minister and top cabinet ministers and government officials in Delhi.
There were also speculations that the deal was a culmination of the discussions between Mr Mukesh Ambai and Mr Anil Ambani, but no explanation came from either side over how the agreement was arrived at.
After the Supreme Court verdict on years of long, bitter gas dispute, the top lieutenants were reported to be holding informal discussions in Mumbai.
Both RIL and ADAG also announced to expeditiously negotiate gas deal in accordance with the Supreme Court order earlier this month, the groups of both Mr Mukesh Ambani and Mr Anil Ambani vowed to fulfil vision of their father Dhirubhai Ambani, after whose death they fought acrimoniously and separated.
Rejecting Anil group firm RNRL plea for concessional gas from RIL, the SC on May 7 had ruled that though the family settlement had no legal sanctity, the two sides should renegotiate the gas agreement within the framework of government policies.
Before the agreements were ratified by the boards of the respective group companies, top officials of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and Anil Ambani Group had long sessions.
As a goodwill gesture, RIL said that it would not enter the gas-based power generation arena till 2022, for which two sides would enter into a separate agreement.
In identical statements released at the same time, both said, “RIL and Reliance ADA group are hopeful and confident that all these steps would create an overall environment of harmony, cooperation and collaboration between the two groups, thereby further enhancing overall shareholder value for shareholders of both the groups”.
“All existing non-compete agreement between the two groups executed in January 2006 are cancelled,” the Anil Ambani group said in a statement.
“A new, simpler non-compete agreement executed limited to only gas-based power generation. RIL and RNRL will expeditiously negotiate gas supply arrangement as per the Supreme Court order and hope to conclude negotiations very soon,” it added.
The non-compete agreements and controversial right of first refusals had become the bone of contention between them and they fought bitterly over the setting up of a power plant at RIL’s upcoming SEZ in Haryana, and Anil-led Reliance Communications failed deal to acquire South African telecom giant MTS.