The 47th Reliance Industries AGM, since its IPO, was perhaps the most anticipated event this week. While the market was expecting some kind of announcement and indication with respect to IPO timelines for Jio and retail business, RIL Chairman and Managing Director did not refer to it in his hour-long address. What he did mention was the growth timeline and said he expects revenue for both verticals to double over next 3-4 years.
Jio, retail business revenue to double in 3-4 years
Outlining Jio’s growth trajectory, Ambani said that, “Jio is poised to be a cornerstone of India‘s digital future.” He expects, “Jio and Retail to double their revenues and EBITDA in the next 3-4 years.I see immense growth potential in our media business.”
One of the key reasons why expectations about the IPO timelines for Reliance Retail and Jio were pretty high was primarily because during the Reliance AGM in 2019, there was a declaration that Jio and the retail business will be listed in 5 years.
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However, Mukesh Ambani did highlight the gorwth drivers for the company and said, the “five growth engines – O2C, Retail, Jio, Media, and Green Energy and fuels. We are uniquely positioned to grow new businesses around the adjacencies of all these growth engines. Today, three of these engines have a valuation of over $100 billion each, and they will continue to grow even faster.”
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Overall wealth creation for investor is something that he mentioned quite a few times. According to the RIL CMD, “Reliance Group is well on track to more than double in size before the end of this decade and grow faster in the decades ahead. This will further cement our position among the most respected and valuable companies in the world.”
“Higher growth will surely bring richer rewards for you,” shared Ambani highlighting the decision of the Board to consider issuing Bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 on September 5. He assured investors that RIL, “will continue to operate within our prudent financial framework, allocating resources to projects and businesses that deliver superior returns to our shareholders while ensuring our balance sheet remains robust.”
Deep Tech – The big enabler
One of the pivotal aspect of his address was the focus on Deep Tech and AI. Hos vision for the future encompasses, “Transforming from implementers to original creators of cutting edge technologies.” Not only is the company planning, to build large scale AI infrastructure to offer AI for all through Gigawatt scale AI ready Data Centers in Jamnagar powered by green energy, there are also plans to boost the transformative impact on sectors like agriculture, healthcare, education and small businesses.
Upstream and Oil-to-Chemicals business a major growth engine
Outlining Reliance Industries’ robust performance in the Upstream and O2C or Oil to Chemical business, Ambani highlighted that the key factirs that helped the sector include
-Focus on operational excellence
-Diversification efforts led to processing 60 grades of crude oil, including 13 new grades
-When freight markets skyrocketed due to geopolitical tension, RIL started chartering more vessels on a long-term basis
-Strong domestic demand for fuels and downstream chemicals
-Deep-tech and Advanced manufacturing competencies
He mentioned that RIL is pioneering terms of “using AI-powered real-time optimisation across our supply chain and advanced crude oil and feedstock characterization, all of which drive increased profitability.”
RIL emerging as deep-tech new energy entity
It would not be wrong to say deep-tech and new energy were the operational terms in the RIL CMD’s speech. He reiterated that Affordable and sustainable round-the clock clean energy is “critical for India’s accelerating growth and the company has committed Rs 75,000 crore to establish new energy ecosystem.”
He added that, “We have begun construction of an integrated advanced chemistry-based battery manufacturing facility with a 30 GWh annual capacity at Jamnagar. Production will commence by second half of next year. We will start by assembling Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) for utility scale applications and pack solutions for residential, commercial, industrial, telecom, and mobility markets. Progressively, over the next few quarters, we will integrate backward to cell manufacturing and eventually to battery chemicals production.”
According to Ambani, “deep integration will provide control on quality and costs helping reset energy cost.”
From: financialexpress
Financial News
