Reliance Industries Limited Chairman and Asia’s second richest person Mukesh Ambani is opening a family office in Singapore, for which he has already selected a manager. The manager will be responsible for recruiting staff for the new entity and get it running, according to people in the know of the development.
Wishing the Singapore property to be ready within a year, the Ambanis have also chosen real estate, Bloomberg quoted the people as saying.
The decision of Ambani to set up family office in Singapore lies with his larger vision of taking his business to global level and acquiring assets outside India. The RIL chairman, while announcing the appointment of Aramco’s chairman on the Reliance board last year, had said that this marked “the beginning of internationalisation” of his conglomerate. “You will hear more about our international plans in the times to come,” he had stated.
The report further suggested that Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani is also helping to set up the family office in Singapore.
The island country has recently become a top choice for the uber rich to set up family offices due to low taxes and relative security. India’s second richest billionaire has followed hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio and Google co-founder Sergey Brin in establishing family offices in the country.
Family offices are establishments that manage the affairs of wealthy clans.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore estimates about 700 were in place by the end of 2021, up from 400 a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the 65-year-old billionaire has a net worth of $83.6 billion and is the world’s tenth richest person on the Bloomberg Wealth Index.
The conglomerate is also entering the FMCG business, which was announced on August 29 during the 45th AGM of Reliance Industries. Ambani’s daughter Isha Ambani, the director of Reliance Retail, said, “I am excited to announce that this year, we will launch our fast-moving consumer goods business. The objective of this business is to develop and deliver high quality, affordable products which solve every Indian’s daily needs.”
