Anil Ambani, the billionaire behind Reliance Communications, the mobile group locked in talks with MTN, its South African peer, is one half of India’s best-known, and most combative, business double acts.

In 2005 Mr Ambani, India’s second-richest man, formed Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group from an inherited portion of the sprawling commercial empire created by his father, Dhirubhai Ambani. The other part of the parent company went to India’s richest man – Mukesh Ambani, Anil’s brother.

The split followed a very public feud between the siblings, halted only by the intervention of their mother. Relations between the pair remain fraught – they both own a share of the same building in Bombay but are said to have separate lifts to avoid running into each other.

At the time of the company division, it appeared that Anil, 48, was destined to remain in his elder brother’s shadow. The side of the original business that Anil was awarded was worth far less than Mukesh’s; Anil’s reputation as a dealmaker was not as great. The younger Ambani looks to have taken that situation as a provocation.

This year he cemented his status as one of India’s most-fêted magnates. In January it took only one minute for investors to subscribe fully Reliance Power’s $3 billion IPO, India’s biggest. When the Indian stock market slid only days after the float, Mr Ambani took steps to pare the losses suffered by retail investors – a move that went a large way to preserving his public image.

Indeed, the goodwill Mr Ambani elicits from his countrymen is probably his biggest asset. A vegetarian who does not drink or smoke, he has been dubbed the “Marathon Man” because he jogs through the streets near home every day and runs the Bombay Marathon every year. Married to a former Bollywood actress and with two young sons, he is a devout Hindu and often visits temples before the start of new ventures.

Having fought tooth and nail to emerge from his brother’s shadow, it seems unlikely that Anil Ambani will be willing for his flagship business – Reliance Communications – to fall under the sway of MTN.