Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) shares ended 1.27 percent lower at ₹2,436.95 on the NSE after various announcements were made in the company's 64th Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Starting the AGM speech, Chairman Mukesh Ambani highlighted that Reliance Industries has cumulatively invested $150 billion in the last 10 years, which is bigger than any corporation in the country.
Further, commenting on RIL's FY23 results, Mukesh Ambani said, “I am delighted to report yet another year of stellar all-round performance. Reliance’s consolidated revenues stood at ₹9,74,864 crore. Reliance’s EBITDA for FY23 was ₹1,53,920 crore, while the net profit was ₹73,670 crore.”
He also announced some major management changes in the firm. While Isha M Ambani, Akash M Ambani and Anant M Ambani have been appointed as Non-Executive Directors of the company, Nita Ambani has stepped down from the board.
Let's take a look at some key announcements made at the AGM:
Jio Financial Services (JFS)
The newly listed demerged stock ended flat after the AGM, down just 0.28 percent at ₹211.65.
In the AGM, Mukesh Ambani informed that JFS will soon enter the insurance industry, potentially partnering with global players, adding that the firm will accelerate the replication of India’s dazzling growth story. Just like Jio and Retail, JFS will prove an invaluable addition to the RIL ecosystem, stated Ambani.
"In payments, JFS will ensure ubiquitous offering for both consumers and merchants, further driving digital adoption. JFS products will explore path-breaking features such as blockchain-based platforms and CBDC. I’ve 3 reasons to be confident about JFS's success. One, the digital-first architecture will give it an unmatched head start, two, RIL has capitalised JFS with a net worth of ₹1,20,000 cr - one of the world’s highest capitalised fin service co at inception, and three, JFS is blessed with a very strong board, led by Shri KV Kamath, a veteran and most respected banker," said the Chairman.
Reliance Jio
Talking about the company's telecom unit Jio, Mukesh Ambani noted the firm has seen a surge in consumption with the average user now consuming over 25 GB every month. This translates to monthly data traffic of 1100 crore GBs, representing a 45 percent year-on-year growth, he noted. He further informed that Jio is adding one 5G cell to network every 10 seconds.
"Reliance Jio was launched 7 years ago with an ambitious mission: to transform India into a Premier Digital Society. Jio has been the main catalyst of New India’s spectacular digital transformation. Now our ambitions go beyond the shores of India. We began the 5G rollout last October. In 9 months, Jio 5G is already present in over 96 percent of the census towns. And we are on track to cover the entire country by Dec ’23. This makes Jio 5G the fastest-ever 5G rollout anywhere in the world. Today, nearly 85 percent of the total 5G cells operational in India are in Jio’s network. At our current pace, we are adding one 5G cell to our network every 10 seconds, and we will have nearly 1 mn 5G cells operational by December," stated Mukesh Ambani in his AGM speech.
Meanwhile, Jio Chairman Akash Ambani also announced Jio Smart Home services. Jio Smart Home services is poised to redefine how we experience and manage our homes, he said.
"Our extensive Jio Fiber service already serves 10+ mn customers, with thousands getting connected each month. With Jio AirFiber, we are expanding our addressable market to 200+ mn homes and other premises," informed Akash.
Reliance Retail
Talking about the retail unit, Mukesh Ambani mentioned that several marquee investors have shown interest in Reliance Retail. In less than 3 years, the valuation of Reliance Retail has almost doubled, notwithstanding the intervening Covid-19 pandemic. Based on this valuation, Reliance Retail would have ranked among the Top 4 companies in India and Top 10 retailers globally, he noted.
Meanwhile, Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Retail, informed that Reliance Retail opened over 3,300 stores, has 2.5 lakh on-roll employees.
"We opened 3,300+ new stores last year, taking the total to 18,040, covering 6.56 cr sq. ft. Two-thirds of these stores are in Tier II, III, and smaller towns, which is a testament to their commitment of making retail inclusive. The new commerce business grew phenomenally on the back of our omni-channel capabilities. The launch of JioMart on WhatsApp has been a phenomenal success with 9X growth of JioMart customers on WhatsApp since launch in 2022," she further stated.
Isha also highlighted that JioMart on-boarded 25,000+ artisans, weavers and micro-entrepreneurs. 1.6 lakh products of artisans from 150+ cities are available on its platforms.
O2C Business
"With our valued partner BP, we have revived gas production from the KG-D6 block from near zero a few years back to about 20 million cubic meters per day in the financial year 2022-23. We are well on our way to enhancing gas production to 30 million standard cubic meters per day, which will be 30 percent of India's gas production, and 15 percent of its current gas demand. At a time when global energy supplies and prices are witnessing unprecedented volatility and uncertainty, this gas is a major source of clean energy saving up to $7 billion per annum imports for our country," said Mukesh Ambani.
He also shares that the company has embarked on transitioning the O2C business into a sustainable and green business.
"We are accelerating our journey to achieve Net Zero by 2035 through renewables and bioenergy. We will also further leverage our engineering and construction capabilities along with our Giga scale manufacturing ecosystem to accelerate an enable installation of at least 100 gigawatts of renewable energy generation," he noted, further adding that the firm is progressing well to deploy ₹75,000 crore to build new energy manufacturing ecosystem and that it is uniquely positioned to offer a practical solution to serious ‘Energy Trilemma’ India faces.
