Reliance Industries Ltd.

RIL net rises 4.2% to ₹13,806 cr. as refining lifts revenue by 57%

July 23, 2021

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) on Friday reported first-quarter net profit rose 4.2% to ₹13,806 crore, as higher price realization in the oil to chemicals (O2C) business helped propel a 57% jump in overall revenue.

Revenue surged to ₹1,58,862 crore, from ₹1,00,929 crore a year earlier, aided by a doubling of revenue from the Oil & Gas business due to incremental production from KG D6 block, and increased revenues from the Jio and Retail units, RIL said in a release.

“Our company has delivered robust growth despite facing a highly challenging operating environment caused by the second wave of the COVID pandemic,” CMD Mukesh D. Ambani said in the release. “The results... clearly demonstrate the resilience of Reliance’s diversified portfolio of businesses that cater to large parts of the consumption basket.”

Jio Platforms Ltd. reported consolidated net profit rose 44.9% to ₹3,651 crore as services revenue increased 9.8% to ₹22,267 crore. The telecom unit’s customer base rose to 440.6 million as on June 30. Total data traffic jumped 38.5% to 20.3 billion GB during the quarter.

Reliance's O2C, new energy biz may be valued more than $100 bn: Report

July 19, 2021

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd's plans for investing Rs 75,000 crore in solar, batteries, fuel cells and hydrogen could create valuation of USD 36 billion (Rs 2.6 lakh crore) for the new energy business, Wall Street brokerage Bernstein Research said in a report.

 Reliance currently has three verticals -- oil-to-chemical (O2C) business that houses its oil refineries, petrochemical plants and fuel retailing business; digital services that comprises telecom arm Jio; and retail including e-commerce. New Energy will be the fourth vertical.

At the company's annual general meeting of shareholders last month, Ambani announced a plan to invest Rs 75,000 crore in a new energy business over the next 3 years in the next stage in its transformation. Under plans announced, the company will invest across solar, batteries and hydrogen to create an integrated clean energy ecosystem.

Other big announcements at the AGM were the launch of the new smartphone JioPhone Next and induction of Aramco chairman to the RIL Board, which is positive for the spin-off in O2C business.

"Clean energy has the potential to be value accretive if Reliance can pull it off," it said. "Based on capex for clean energy, we see a route to Reliance building a clean energy business, which could be worth USD 36 billion."

It put a valuation of over USD 69 billion for the O2C business, USD 66 billion for digital services and USD 81.2 billion for retail. Upstream oil and gas operations are worth another USD 4.1 billion. Other investments such as in the media and hospitality space are valued at USD 3.7 billion

Reliance, along with ADNOC, to invest in mega petrochemical JV in Dubai

June 30, 2021

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and UAE’s oil behemoth Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) have announced that they have signed an agreement to develop a giant petrochemical joint venture to produce chlor-alkali, ethylene dichloride and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production facility at Ta’ziz Industrial Complex in Ruwais, the company said in an official statement. “The agreement capitalises on growing demand for these critical industrial raw materials and leverages the strengths of ADNOC and Reliance as global industrial and energy leaders,” said the statement.

The project will be constructed in the Ta’ziz Industrial Chemicals Zone, which is a joint venture between ADNOC and state holding company ADQ.

Ta’ziz & Reliance to construct integrated petrochemical plant. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Ta’ziz and Reliance will construct an integrated plant, with capacity to produce 940 thousand tons of chlor-alkali, 1.1 million tons of ethylene dichloride and 360 thousand tons of PVC annually, said the statement. Chlor-alkali is used in water treatment and in the manufacture of textiles and metals. Ethylene dichloride is typically used to produce PVC. PVC has a wide range of applications across housing, infrastructure and consumer goods

It's official! Reliance to go green, will bet Rs 75000 crore on new energy

June 24, 2021

According to Ambani, Reliance will spend Rs 75,000 crore on the new energy business over three years and has already begun work on building a 5,000-acre hub in Jamnagar, Gujarat. "Jamnagar was the cradle of our old energy business," Ambani said, "Jamnagar will also be the cradle of our new energy business." 

The Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex will be amongst the largest integrated renewable energy manufacturing facilities in the world, he claimed, and will support Reliance's three-phase plan for its new venture. 

As part of its strategy, Reliance is planning to build four "Giga factories": a solar manufacturing units, a fuel-cell manufacturing facility, a battery factory to enhance energy storage, and an electrolyzer unit to produce green hydrogen. All these facilities will be provided infrastructure and utility support from the planned green energy complex. 

Reliance will invest Rs 60,000 crore in these facilities over the next three years, with an additional Rs 15,000 crore investment planned for developing the value chain, into partnerships, and future technologies, including upstream and downstream industries. "Reliance will thus create and offer a fully integrated, end-to-end renewables energy eco-system," Ambani said. 

RIL's new energy strategy will also involve the creation on two more supplementary divisions: a dedicated Renewable Energy Project Management and Construction Division, and a dedicated Renewable Energy Project Finance Division. The company is planning to set up 100 GW of solar energy capacity by 2030. Ambani had made a commitment last year that Reliance will be net carbon zero by 2035. 

"The age of fossil fuels, which powered economic growth globally for nearly three centuries, cannot continue much longer," Ambani told shareholders

Reliance's FCCU unit at Jamnagar refinery shut, exports likely to be delayed

June 10, 2021

India's private refiner Reliance Industry said on Wednesday a secondary unit at its export-focused refinery in the western state of Gujarat has been shut since June 6, which may delay the shipment of some product cargoes.

The refinery, which has the capacity to process 704,000 barrels of crude per day (bpd), is part of the world's biggest refining complex in the city of Jamnagar in Gujarat state.

Reliance, which operates the refining complex, did not give a reason for the "emergency shutdown" of the refinery's fluidized catalytic cracking unit (FCCU)."The FCCU unit is being repaired on top priority and is expected to be restarted expeditiously," the company said in a stock exchange filing.

"Consequently, some product shipments may get delayed and we are working to minimize the impact on our customers," it said.

A source familiar with the matter said that the unit will be fixed in a week's time. The refining complex in Jamnagar has two refineries. The 704,000 bpd export-focused plant is adjacent to the 330,000 bpd refinery that mostly sell products in the local market

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail second-fastest growing retailer in world

May 09, 2021

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail Ltd has been ranked second fastest growing retailer in the world in the 2021 ranking of global retail power houses by Deloitte, down from top rank secured the previous years.It has been ranked 53rd in the list of Global Powers of Retailing, improvement from 56th earlier, according to the Deloitte report.

The list is topped by US giant Walmart Inc, which retains its position as world's top retailer. Amazon.com Inc improved its position to rank second. Costco Wholesale Corporation of US slipped a rank to be placed third followed by Schwarz Group of Germany.

The top 10 has seven US retailers and one from the UK (Tesco PLC at 10th position). Other US retailers in the top 10 include The Kroger Co (ranked 5th), Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc (6th) and CVS Health Corporation (ranked 9th). Germany's Aldi Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG and Aldi International Services GmbH & Co. oHG is placed at 8th position.

Reliance Retail is the only Indian entry in the global list of 250 retailers. It features consecutively for the 4th time in the list of Global Powers of Retailing and World's Fastest Retailers.

"Reliance Retail, last year's Fastest 50 leader, dropped to second place. The company recorded YoY growth of 41.8 per cent, driven primarily by a 13.1 per cent increase in the number of stores in its consumer electronics, fashion and lifestyle and grocery retail chains, to 11,784 stores across 7,000+ towns and cities in India at fiscal year end (FY20)," Deoitte said.

E-commerce, it said, is a second growth driver, through both digital commerce (B2C) and B2B