RELENTLESS RELIANCE

EVEN AS ITS CONVENTIONAL OIL AND GAS BUSINESS REORIENTS ITSELF IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD, RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED’S FOCUS ON NEW-AGE VENTURES LIKE RETAIL AND TELECOM IS WHETTING ITS APPETITE FOR GROWTH

- KRISHNA GOPALAN

THE OUTBREAK OF the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 set businesses back like very few calamities in the past ever have. It was time to reorient business models. Survival became the mantra. In the midst of the storm, India’s largest private sector enterprise, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), spent a good part of the time raising investor money for its telecommunications and retail businesses. For calendar year 2020, investments were raised to the tune of $20 billion for its digital services arm Jio Platforms, followed by another $6 billion for Reliance Retail Ventures. The message was two-fold. The investors were convinced about RIL’s story. And also about India’s long-term story. And there were impressive names among the investors, including Facebook, Google, TPG, Silver Lake, KKR, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF). Importantly, RIL’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani, put out a statement in June 2020 that the company was net debt-free. It allayed the fears of those who were apprehensive about a highly leveraged balance sheet, thanks to a series of investments in the company, plus RIL’s own rights issue.