“Sometimes fighting has a silver lining, as has been the case for Indian brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani,” US business magazine wrote about the two siblings in a report on the latest list — ‘Billionaire Family Feuds’.

In 2005, the two had a collective net worth of $7 billion, but in the Forbes’ March 2007 list of world’s richest persons, Mukesh alone was ranked at 14th place with a net worth of $20.1 billion and Anil followed at 18th position with $18.2 billion, the report said.

Peace settlement
“Unable to get along, once-inseparable brothers began fighting publicly in late 2004 for control of Reliance Industries, one of India’s largest conglomerates, founded by their late father Dhirubhai Ambani. The situation became so untenable that their mother Kokilaben brokered a court, which approved peace settlement that entailed divvying up the family businesses,” the report noted.

According to Forbes, the bickering is still continuing between the two, despite their mother brokering a settlement to divide the family assets way back in June 2005. “Anil has taken Mukesh to court a couple of times, most notably over a crucial gas-supply agreement. The recent court ruling gives the brothers four months to renegotiate a deal,” it added.But  still, the fight has not affected the stock prices of their companies, it said. Half of ten fights are related to US families, while Ambani family is the only one from India. There are also feuds involving families in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong and Switzerland.