Mukesh accused of sabotaging MTN deal

The war between the Ambani brothers erupted again tonight with younger Anil's group charging Mukesh-led Reliance Industries with attempting to “sabotage” its potential multi-billion dollar deal with South African telecom giant MTN.
Mukesh's group, however, declined to comment on allegations from Anil's group that RIL had communicated to MTN about its claim to right of first refusal to buy controlling stake in RCom and it was “legally and factually untenable, baseless and misconceived.”
An RIL spokesperson said “no comments” when asked about the issues raised by Anil Ambani group.
Asserting that the new combined entity would have operating profits of Rs 50,000 crore, much higher than the Mukesh Ambani group, an RCom official alleged that “RIL is seeking to disrupt the creation of one of the world's most valuable telecoms combinations.”
Claiming that RIL's communication to MTN was based on a 'unilateral' agreement of 12 January 2006 signed by RIL officials, ADAG said that the agreement for effecting the family settlement was held “unfair and unjust” by the Bombay High Court later that year.
RCom officials, however, exuded confidence that RIL's attempt would not delay the negotiations on the deal, that is believed to be in the region of over $70 billion where Mr Anil Ambani could be chairman of the combined entity with single largest shareholding.
He, however, did not take questions on the present status of the negotiations for which RCom had entered into exclusive negotiations with the MTN group on 26 May for a period of 45 days.
Meanwhile, reports from Johannesburg quoted an MTN spokesperson as saying “as far as we are concerned nothing has changed... we (RCom and MTN) are continuing talks.”