Business

The rainmaker behind Mukesh Ambani’s $13-billion deal spree

He has no flashy titles and few outside India know his name. But in the halls of Reliance Industries Ltd, Manoj Modi has quietly become one of the most powerful forces behind the corporate empire of Asia’s richest man.

Reserved and mostly invisible to the public, Modi is viewed by many insiders and others in India’s business world as the right hand of billionaire Mukesh Ambani. He played a key role during negotiations for a $5.7-billion deal with Facebook Inc in April, backing Ambani and his children as they hashed out an agreement with the social networking giant, said people familiar with the matter.

As Ambani, 63, shifts his sprawling conglomerate’s focus from petrochemicals to Internet technologies, Modi is seen as a particularly influential voice. Facebook’s investment in the group’s Jio Platforms was followed by similar deals from a slew of private-equity funds, injecting $13 billion into the business and placing it firmly on Silicon Valley’s radar.

It’s not a company that advertises its organisational structure but the industry knows that Ambani and Modi are a strongly-bonded team — and together drive deal negotiation and relentless execution to the last level of detail, said Vani Kola, Managing Director of venture capital firm, Kalaari Capital Partners, who persuaded Modi to make a rare public appearance at a conference last year, albeit by video.

Making money

Modi is a Director at Reliance Retail Ltd and the group’s telecom carrier Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. At Kolas conference, he downplayed his skills. “I don’t really negotiate,” Modi said. “I don’t understand strategy”. “In fact, people internally know that I don’t even have a vision.” He described his role, saying, “I deal with our internal people, coaching them, mentoring them and guiding them on how something can be done.”

But then came a hint of his thinking: “Our principle at Reliance is very simple: Unless everyone makes money while working with us, you cannot have a sustainable business.”

Over half-a-dozen executives in the technology industry, who have had dealings with Reliance, said Modi has a reputation for driving hard bargains. When dealing with start-ups, he often controls negotiations from behind the scenes by instructing executives how far to push, making an appearance nearing deal fruition, they said.

Tech investments

While Reliance’s recent mega investments have drawn the spotlight, the conglomerate also began an acquisition spree to buy smaller firms some years ago to build expertise in newer technologies from Artificial Intelligence to blockchain. The idea is to create a digital business that wields power in everything from online retail to streamed entertainment and Internet payments.

“He derives his power in the organisation not just because of his loyalty, but because of his very astute, smart and able negotiator skills for Reliance Industries,” GR Gopinath, founder of budget carrier Air Deccan, who had sold a stake in his cargo airline to Reliance in 2010.

Gopinath said Modi is ruthlessly efficient and manages to get the best possible deal for Reliance in mergers and acquisitions.

Modi is one of the few who have been with the company since the 1980s when Ambani’s late father was building the oil-and-petrochemicals giant.

That has allowed Modi a chance to work with three generations of the Ambani dynasty: The late patriarch Dhirubhai, then Mukesh and his wife Nita, and now his children Isha and Akash, who are playing more prominent roles on deals like Facebook.

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