International industry sources said yesterday that Mr Ambani’s two firms, Reliance and Essar, had offered between $400 million (about Sh560 billion) and $500 million (Sh700 billion) for each of the BP Africa’s assets in Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia.

Should the bid succeed, it will consolidate the influence of the world’s fourth richest man in the local fuel market since Mr Ambani already does business in the country through Gulf Africa Petroleum Corp (Gapco). The acquisitions are bound to have far-reaching regional ramifications since Gapco also does business in Kenya and Uganda.

About half a dozen firms, including Libya’s National Oil Corporation, have also expressed interest in buying the BP assets in the five countries. Kenya’s Kenol Kobil had also said it was keen to acquire the assets after BP announced early this year that it was quitting some of its African operations to concentrate only on a handful of markets.

The Tanzanian Government, which holds a 50 per cent stake in BP Tanzania, had also declared that it wished to acquire the oil giant’s business in the country. There have also been reports that Tanzania was considering teaming up with Zambia and Malawi in a joint acquisition, since the business would be a strategic investment to ensure reliable stocks of fuel in the three countries.

Yesterday, Energy and Minerals minister William Ngeleja said though the government had expressed interest in acquiring the business, BP Africa had not responded. He said that as a key shareholder, the government would have to be consulted before the BP assets in Tanzania are sold.

“We are still waiting for their offer. Despite having said they want to sell their shares, they have not yet communicated with us officially,” Mr Ngeleja told The Citizen by phone from his Sengerema constituency, in Mwanza Region.

Last March, Mr Ngeleja announced that buying the BP Africa stake in BP Tanzania would be one of the government’s business ventures. He also said that even if BP found another strategic investor, the transaction would not go on without the government’s approval. “No new investor will come aboard without our approval. This is according to the partnership deal that we have sealed,” he said.

Although the BP Africa asset sale was announced before the company’s oil leak disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that has cost it billions of dollars, there were no reports of the proceeds being used to help pay damages arising from the debacle in the United States.

The assets BP is selling include retail outlets, terminals and aviation fuel stations. According to industry sources, Reliance may be looking at supplying gas oil, gasoline and jet fuel to the East African markets from its twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat. Currently, the company is the supplier of oil to Gapco, which also owns retail outlets in Uganda and Kenya.

Sectoral experts say the acquisition of the BP assets would give a company a ready market for auto and aviation fuel with a scope for further expansion into neighbouring high growth countries. Besides selling fuel, lubricants and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), BP is the largest aviation fuel supplier in Tanzania, with about 70 per cent market share. BP Tanzania has for a long time held a 35 per cent market share in both the retail and service stations.

Back in March, when RIL and IMG announced their partnership, they decided to initiate a scholarship program which would identify Indian athletes with exceptional talent and thereby provided academic scholarships to their residential academy in the US.

It was in January this year that the AIFF held an U-14 festival in Jamshedpur from which the gifted ones were selected. These boys joined the U-13 team from last year and following a camp, the selected 22 boys were sent for the AFC U-14 festival in Iran in May where they managed to hold the hosts twice with the scoreline reading 1-1 and 2-2 respectively.

From these 22 players, 16 were chosen and shall be sponsored by Mukesh Ambani, the fourth richest man in the world according to Forbes, and the IMG group. The players have been summoned to attend a camp in Gurgaon from the 7th of next month until the 27th following which they shall depart for the US along with the coach. When Goal.com contacted the AIFF, they chose to remain mum on the deal.

The IMG Soccer Academy has seven soccer fields and their facilities are used by the Bradenton Academy who run the US Soccer Residency Program which has provided a steady flow of talent for the US national team with the likes of Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore coming through their ranks.

This deal marks a new era for sponsorship as it’s the first of its kind in football in India and it’s heartening to see corporates coming forward to support the cause of the most beautiful game.

Interestingly, six of the 16 boys are hailing from Punjab and Chandigarh while the traditional hubs of Indian football, West Bengal and Goa, contributing a player each.

Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries, RIL

Source:http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/2715/india-colts/2010/07/29/2046591/exclusive-img-reliance-to-send-sixteen-india-u-14-boys-to

Boosted by the healthy June quarter results, shares of the country’s most valued corporate rose 1.44 per cent to touch a high of Rs. 1068.70 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. According to statistics, during the quarter ended 30th June, 2010, the production from KG D6 was 304,349 tonnes of crude oil and 5,376 MMSCM of natural gas. As compared to the corresponding period of the previous year’s results, the production of both crude oil and natural gas grew by 207 percent and 210 percent respectively. Commenting on the quarter 1 results of Reliance Industries Limited, Chairman and Managing Director, RIL, Mukesh Ambani said, “We had yet another record quarter due to high operating rates and improving margins across all our businesses. Reliance embarked on two major initiatives to create incremental value. We entered into joint ventures in shale gas to internationalize and diversify our upstream portfolio. Reliance has also committed itself to participate in the high growth and exciting area of broadband wireless. Both these initiatives are in line with the strategy to identify and invest in new, value creating businesses.”

Reliance Industries Limited posted a 32.3 per cent rise in profit and a whopping 85 percent jump in revenues for the quarter ended 30th June. According to the industry experts, this is the highest ever quarterly result including net profit and revenues reported by RIL and its credit goes to the robust performance of its refining and petrochemical businesses. Research MD at CNI, Kishore Ostwal commented on these RIL results and said, “The company has posted impressive quarter earnings which should be good for the overall market. However, I feel the stock will remain flat in the short-term.”

Source:http://news-views.in/reliance-q1-results-see-32-3-jump/

They would be requested to campaign for the mission, which was launched in September by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The names of the mission’s ambassadors are likely to be announced on 8 September, International Literacy Day.

Saakshar Bharat, aims to make 70 million adults (60 million being women) literate in three years and will be implemented in 365 of the country’s 619 districts. While India’s average overall literacy rate is 65.3%, for females it’s 54.28%. In the targeted districts, female literacy is less than 50%. The scheme has already been rolled out in 167 districts in the first week of April and is expected to cost Rs6,000 crore.

Nita Ambani’s office declined to comment. However, the ministry appears to be optimistic.

“We have zeroed in on these icons because we believe that this scheme will be successful if individuals who have sufficiently high profile as well as are committed to the cause are nominated as Saakshar ambassadors,” said a senior ministry official requesting anonymity. The official also said that the ministry wants Nita Ambani and Vadra to be ambassadors at the national level, others will be approached to be goodwill ambassadors at the state level. Some sports personalities will also be roped in later.

They will be expected to pro-actively participate in mass mobilization, undertake visits to some villages to influence teachers and learners, and help motivate private firms to contribute to the programme under their corporate social responsibility schemes. The ministry note points out that Nita Ambani can be “very effective in promoting the private sector initiative and mobilization of resources” for the adult literacy mission.

Mukesh Ambani’s RIL-Infotel has installed, as per the source, five WiMax base station in which three are from Alvarion and two are from Samsung. The company is checking interoperability among various BTSs and devices along with factors that hold key to a business.

Infotel won BWA spectrum in all 22 telecom circles across the country for a whopping Rs 12,847.77 crore. On the same day RIL had announced to acquire 95 per cent stake in the company.

The entry of Mukesh Ambani into telecom will create death knell for several players. The mobile industry is yet to recover from shocks following the implementation of the per second billing concept. Mukesh Ambani, when launched Reliance Infocomm, was the first to take on Vodafone and Bharti Airtel with cost effective schemes. Mahendra Nahata created history when HFCL won several mobile circles when the telecom industry was opened up for private players in mid 1990s. But Nahatas could not complete their mission. Mukesh Ambani, who settled his issues with brother Anil Ambani, can now enter telecom space and is looking for buying out operators.

The success of WiMax trials being run by Reliance-Infotel will be a big blow to Qualcomm, the evangelist of TD LTE technology, which is expected to make foray into global market by late 2012 or early 2013.

According to WiMax Forum, there are more than 300 WiMax devices of all types like datacards, Indoor CPE, WiMax Hand Sets etc, already certified by it for use in more than 540 mobile WiMax networks in 140 countries. There are more addition expected by WiMax Forum to this existing range of devices.

Source:http://news-views.in/mukesh-ambani-back-with-a-bang/

According to the United Nations representative, Mukesh Ambani, the top Indian industrialist will also look at the special needs of the least developed countries of the world as well as other landlocked developing countries along with other small islands and developing states. As per the sources, the Millennium Development Goals are eight international goals which at least 23 global organizations and 192 United Nations member states have agreed to achieve by the tear 2015. All these goals are developmental goals and will work for the benefit of the underprivileged sections of the society worldwide.

This golden opportunity will also strengthen the presence of Reliance Industries globally. Reliance Chief Mukesh Ambani feels proud to be associated with this noble cause which includes reducing poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics like AIDS and developing a global partnership for development. According to the world body, this MDG advocacy group will support the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in mobilizing global action and building political will. To set this initiative rolling, the first task of the advocacy group is the preparation for the MDG Summit which will be held in September this year and this Summit can be seen as a turning point in the collective effort to achieve the set goals by 2015.

The elder of the two Ambani siblings, Mukesh is also the member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry and the Board of Governors of the National Council of Applied Economic Research. Not just on the national front, Mukesh Ambani is also active in the international scene. He also holds the position of the Vice Chairman of The World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Source:http://news-views.in/un-names-mukesh-ambani-in-mdg-advocacy-group/