RIL invests Rs800 cr in Anil Ambani’s Reliance MF

Reflecting the growing bonhomie between the Ambani brothers after a long and sometimes bitter business feud, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd has invested Rs800 crore in various schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund, controlled by younger brother Anil Ambani.

This comes close on the heels of a Rs1,200 crore deal between the brothers announced on Tuesday in which the two groups have agreed to share optic fibre cables, telecom towers and other telecom infrastructure for their respective ventures, Mukesh's Reliance Jio Infocomm and Anil's Reliance Communications.

Reliance Industries has made the MF investments mostly in fixed maturity plans and other debt schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund, PTI reported quoting market sources. Reliance MF is part of the Anil Ambani Group's financial services arm Reliance Capital Ltd.

At the end of fiscal 2011-12, the cash-rich RIL had invested over Rs8,700 crore in various mutual funds.

The two groups, which about three years ago had scrapped a non-compete agreement between them, have now also agreed for a comprehensive framework of business cooperation.

RIL's investment in Reliance MF schemes, which has been made over a period of the past eight months, comes as a clear departure of the oil-to-retail conglomerate's earlier stance of parking surplus funds into almost all the mutual funds, expect those run by the Anil Ambani-led group.

At the end of fiscal 2011-12 ended March 31, RIL had invested over Rs8,700 crore in various mutual funds, but these did not include Reliance MF.

RIL holds one of the biggest cash balances among all the corporates in the country. It had cash and cash equivalent of Rs80,962 crore (about $15 billion) as of 31 December 2012. A large portion of these funds are parked in bank deposits, certificates of deposit, mutual funds, government bonds and securities.