NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, JUNE 2
After record fund raising, Reliance Industries Ltd now has a strong balance sheet with high liquidity that will support growth plans for its three hyper-growth engines, Jio, Retail and Oil-to-Chemicals, according to the firm’s Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani.
In the company’s latest annual report released on Wednesday, he said the company sold minority stakes in Jio Platforms – the unit that houses its telecom and digital business – and retail arm for almost Rs 2 lakh crore and raised another Rs 53,124 crore through rights issue.
“We now have a strong balance sheet with high liquidity that will support growth plans for our three hyper-growth engines – Jio, Retail and O2C,” he said.
During 2020-21, Reliance completed India’s largest ever rights issue of Rs 53,124 crore (oversubscribed by 1.59 times), which was also the largest in the world by a non-financial institution in the last 10 years.
“During the year, Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail raised Rs 1,52,056 crore and Rs 47,265 crore, respectively, from strategic and financial investors, including Facebook and Google,” he said. “BP invested Rs 7,629 crore for a 49 percent stake in our fuel retailing business.”
These funds helped Reliance reach net zero-debt target ahead of schedule.
“Strong operating cash flow and largest ever capital raise further strengthened our balance sheet, enabling us to deleverage and meet our net-debt zero commitment ahead of stated timeline,” he said, adding that during the year, Reliance made pre-payment of USD 7.8 billion of long-term foreign currency debt, with requisite approvals from RBI.
This is the highest ever pre-payment of debt undertaken by any corporate borrower in India.
Jio accelerating rollout of digital platforms, indigenously-developed 5G stack
Jio is accelerating the rollout of digital platforms and indigenously-developed next-generation 5G stack, Reliance Industries’ annual report has said, highlighting that India is at the forefront of the ‘global digital revolution’.
Reliance Jio has built sufficient network capacity for the next 300 million mobile broadband subscribers, over 50 million fibre homes and 50 million micro, small and medium businesses, it said.
Qualcomm and Jio successfully tested 5G solutions in India, achieving the 1 Gbps milestone on Jio 5G solution, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said in the annual report.
The annual report noted that Jio and Qualcomm, along with JPL’s wholly-owned subsidiary Radisys Corporation, have developed an open and interoperable interface-compliant architecture-based 5G solution with a virtualised RAN (vRAN), which will accelerate the development and rollout of indigenous 5G network infrastructure and services in India.
“The 5G RAN Platform has crossed the 1 Gbps milestone on the Jio 5G core network and 5G smartphones,” the report said, adding that the feat not only underlines Jio”s 5G credentials but also signifies the entry of Jio and India into the gigabit 5G NR product portfolio.
India is at the forefront of the global digital revolution, said the annual report, adding that “Jio is accelerating the rollout of digital platforms and indigenously developed next-generation 5G stack, making it affordable and available everywhere”.
Jio has infused over $50 billion investment since its inception to create the largest and advanced digital and connectivity ecosystem in India, with a wide bouquet of apps and platforms.
“In growing its ecosystem to make India the world’s premier digital society and economy, Jio is not just enhancing the experience of its existing 426 million customers, but is also accelerating the transition towards digital for the next 300 million mobility users, 50 million homes and 50 million micro, small and medium businesses,” it said.
Outlining the key takeaways of FY 2020-21, the report said that Jio Platforms (JPL) completed fundraising of Rs 1,52,056 crore across 13 global marquee investors.
Other highlights included completion of testing of indigenously developed end-to-end Jio 5G Radio and Core Network Solution for a self-sufficient and cost-effective rollout in the near future.
Over the next few years, Jio would focus on creating a “robust” wireline network across the country, offering high-speed connectivity and a bouquet of digital services to every home and enterprise, it pledged.
“Jio is geared up to touch the lives of over a billion Indians through its digital offerings,” it said.
To date, Jio has been granted 371 patents across multiple jurisdictions. In FY 2020-21 alone, the company filed for 38 patents and was granted 40.
Among the key technology areas covered by the patents are Quantum Blockchain Network Technology, Deep Learning Applications in Health and Agriculture, and AI Industrial IoT Automation.
