Mukesh Ambani's Succession Plan Follows Walton Family's Playbook: Report

Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita, and three children will have stakes in the new entity overseeing Reliance and be on its board, along with a few of Ambani's long-term confidantes as advisers.

For years, Mukesh Ambani has studied the ways in which billionaire families, from the Waltons to the Kochs, passed on what they'd built to the next generation. Recently, that process has intensified, with Asia's richest man eyeing a blueprint for the next stage of his $208 billion empire that seeks to avert the succession warfare that's torn apart so many wealthy clans - including his own.

The 64-year-old Indian tycoon's favored plan shares elements with that of Walmart Inc.'s Walton family, people familiar with the matter say, and could provide the framework for one of the biggest transfers of wealth in recent times. Ambani is considering moving his family's holdings into a trust-like structure that will control the Mumbai-listed flagship Reliance Industries Ltd., the people said, asking not to be identified on a topic they're not authorized to discuss publicly.

Ambani, his wife Nita, and three children will have stakes in the new entity overseeing Reliance and be on its board, along with a few of Ambani's long-term confidantes as advisers. Management, though, will largely be entrusted to outsiders, professionals who will handle the day-to-day operations of India's most influential company and its businesses that span oil refining and petrochemicals to telecommunications, e-commerce and green energy.

In his desire to manage the next stage, Ambani is not alone.