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Rediff.com  » Business » Reliance is ready for a big surge: Mukesh

Reliance is ready for a big surge: Mukesh

June 18, 2010 16:10 IST
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"It took three decades for Reliance to create an enterprise value of over $80 billion - that is, over Rs. 370,000 crore. However, I feel hopeful and confident that Reliance can accomplish value creation of a similar magnitude in less than a decade. My confidence stems from the fact that India itself stands at a transformational point in its history. It took 60 years for India's GDP to grow to $1 trillion. However, our country is all set to reach the next trillion mark in less than a decade - indeed, within the next five years," said Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries, while announcing big initiatives across various sectors. .

"Ahead of India are the best ever years in our country's history. India is set to become the fastest growing economy within the coming few years. And Reliance is well-placed to be at the vanguard of India's epic leap forward. Reliance has set sights and course on initiatives that are unparalleled in scope, scale and value. Initiatives that will create new landscapes for Reliance, new terrains for Indian industry and economy, and new leagues for India," Mukesh Ambani said.

Here's Mukesh Ambani's annual address to shareholders:

Dear Shareowners,

It is exactly seven months since November 17, 2009, when we met at our last AGM. These seven months have been very eventful for Reliance. Several momentous initiatives and developments have taken root and shape. Many among them are transformational in nature. All these years Reliance has evolved in an expansive mindset. Our backward vertical integration strategy, path-breaking new initiatives, world-scale facilities and global market participation marked this mindset.

These efforts have resulted in building, from scratch and in just three decades, a world-class enterprise with over US$ 80 billion in enterprise value. An enterprise that has made a difference to India. An enterprise that Shri Dhirubhai Ambani, my father and the Founder Chairman of Reliance, envisioned. His enduring vision of an India-based global enterprise, his timeless principles of trust in people and the pursuit of world-class initiatives will always continue to guide us in our evolution.

Reliance is now graduating from evolving in an expansive mindset to taking wings on transformational trajectories. Reliance has set sights and course on initiatives that are unparalleled in scope, scale and value. Initiatives that will create new landscapes for Reliance, new terrains for Indian industry and economy, and new leagues for India.

2. SUPREME COURT VERDICT

Dear Shareholders,

One of the important developments in these seven months has been the Supreme Court verdict in May 2010, on the oil and gas allocation and pricing issues with ADAG. The Supreme Court upheld, in most parts, the stand of Reliance Industries Limited. It has always been our position that we are, and continue to be, governed by the provisions of the Production Sharing Contract in all respects of the Petroleum Operations carried out by us.

We have also been fully conscious that the Government of India has more than a significant say in these operations. As and when the power plants of ADAG are ready to receive gas, we would commence supplies to them subject to Government granting allocations to these plants in the same manner as we do to all other plants to whom Government has allocated gas from the KG-D6 gas field.

With this legal dispute behind us, we look forward to a harmonious and constructive relationship with ADAG.

3. GLOBAL ECONOMY

Dear Shareowners,

Since our last AGM, there have been significant developments in the larger global macroeconomic context, with implications for Reliance. The global economy has only partially recovered from the financial meltdown of 2008.

Meanwhile, there are dark clouds on the horizon caused by the current debt-crisis in Europe. Budget and project spending cuts in many European countries are ominous. As a result, a slower than anticipated global economic growth can be expected. Access to capital resources at competitive costs may continue to remain constrained. Protectionism is likely to assume larger proportions.

At the same time, better performing economies can be expected to aggressively secure resources to ensure their future growth and development. On the brighter side, the Indian Government's macro-economic management has been praiseworthy. Unprecedented opportunities for growth in India and the rest of Asia are unfolding, making our continent a powerful engine of global economic growth.

Ahead of India are the best ever years in our country's history. India is set to become the fastest growing economy within the coming few years. And Reliance is well-placed to be at the vanguard of India's epic leap forward. I say so because there are several natural advantages for Reliance.

For instance, in our core areas of business - energy, refinery, petrochemicals - we have unique integration with basic raw materials in-house. We have built diverse range of super-efficient manufacturing facilities making products to stringent international quality standards. We have superior access to capital at competitive costs. We have a strong balance sheet that can serve as a launch pad for our ambitious future forays.

And, most importantly, Reliance is proud to have a highly competent, committed and dedicated work force, with an innovative, execution focused and value creation mindset. With these strengths, Reliance is now ready for a big surge forward.

4. BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Let me review with you Reliance's business and financial performance since the last AGM. Once again, it was a record year in terms of revenues and profits for Reliance. In a difficult macro-economic and product-market context, Reliance posted a 37% increase in turnover to reach Rs. 200,400 crore.

We are the first private sector company in India to cross sales of Rs. 200,000 crore. Reliance exported products to the extent of Rs. 110,176 crore, an increase of 24% over the previous year and is India's largest exporter. Return on capital employed for Reliance was 14 percent, after adjustments for capital work in progress and revaluation. This performance has to be seen in the context of a slower than anticipated global economic recovery.

 The difficult external environment also did not deter Reliance from making capital investments to the tune of Rs. 21,943 crore. Reliance has proposed a dividend payout of 70 percent on the postbonus share capital, amounting to Rs. 2,430 crore. With a cash and cash equivalent of Rs. 21,874 crore, Reliance is among the strongest companies financially in emerging markets.

Reliance also continues to be one of India's largest contributors to the national exchequer, primarily by way of duties and taxes. During the year, Reliance paid Rs. 17,972 crore in various forms of taxes and duties, reflecting an increase of 55% over the previous year. All these parameters reflect the strong performance of Reliance in a challenging global economic context.

Inherently, they underline the robustness of the Reliance balance sheet. A strong balance sheet places Reliance at an advantage in a capitalconstrained world. It gives Reliance the ability to pursue its organic growth charter. Equally, it gives Reliance the ability to capitalize on inorganic growth opportunities.

5. POLYESTER

Dear Shareowners,

The polyester business has been the front runner in Reliance's path of progress and profitability. Reliance is the largest producer of polyester in the world with facilities in multiple locations in India and Malaysia. Reliance is focused on sustaining its leadership position.

By making significant investments in new capacities in India. The Asian demand for polyester will grow rapidly as several end-user industries are shifting their base to Asia. The phenomenal Indian growth story will also create additional demand.

Reliance is uniquely positioned to leverage this growth opportunity based on its leadership in costs, differentiated product range and breadth of customer offerings. I am pleased to inform that we are executing 1.4 million tons of Paraxylene capacity at Jamnagar.

We are also setting up - a. an integrated 2.3 million tons of Purified Terephthalic Acid. b. 540,000 tons of Polyethylene Terephthalate complex at Gandhar. c. 360,000 tonns of polyester filament yarn plant at Silvassa. These initiatives translate to the single largest capacity addition in Polyester in the history of Reliance.

This expansion will strengthen India's position as a leading textile and fibre producer in the world. With the next phase of large-scale investments, combined with value added products, the polyester business would contribute in greater measure to Reliance's growth and profitability and maintain our global leadership.

6. PETROCHEMICALS

Dear Shareowners,

In our recent past, the petrochemical business went into a consolidation phase. This was a sequel to the large capacity additions in Jamnagar and integration of manufacturing facilities of the erstwhile IPCL. 10 With this phase coming to a conclusion, Reliance is unleashing a new wave of petrochemical projects, encompassing existing and new product-market domains.

We are committed to creating competitive capacity to cater to the next decade of growth in India and Asia. India's high rate of economic growth is giving a boost to the automobile, construction, agriculture, processed food and organized retail sectors. This potential end-use sectoral growth, and the consequent derived demand, form the basis for the new petrochemical investments planned by Reliance.

The refinery provides Reliance with extremely competitive feedstock. Reliance will leverage its superior technical and project execution skills in building additional global scale capacities. Currently, due to the current economic crisis, capacity building in this sector globally is at a low. This provides Reliance with a unique opportunity to build world scale capacity at competitive capital costs.

All these augur well for rapid growth and profitability of the petrochemical business of Reliance. I had announced the setting up of an off-gas cracker at Jamnagar in 2007. We are accelerating the implementation of this cracker. This off-gas cracker with over 1.5 million tons per annum of olefins capacity with matching downstream capacities will be one of the largest facilities in the world. MEG from cracker will add to our leadership position in the polyester business.

Further, we will value-add kerosene to Normal paraffin at Jamnagar to address the growth opportunity in the growing Indian detergent market. Reliance is the largest player in the synthetic rubber business in India. We want to build on this leadership to become one of the top ten elastomer companies in the world.

Reliance will create additional capacities of poly butadiene rubber at Baroda and styrene butadiene rubber at Hazira. And butyl rubber in a JV partnership with SIBUR to complete a comprehensive portfolio in the synthetic rubbers domain. In the next five years, our total investment in all the new polyester and petrochemical manufacturing facilities will be the largest investment in this sector to be made anywhere in the world at any given point of time. This will contribute to enhanced market share and cashflows.

A combination of higher capacities, new product domains and competitive feedstock will reinforce the status of Reliance as the most profitable petrochemical producer in the world.

7. PETROLEUM REFINING AND MARKETING

Dear Shareowners,

Reliance continues to break new grounds in the petroleum refining business Last year, Reliance commissioned its new 580 kbpsd refinery in a Special Economic Zone at Jamangar. With an aggregate refining capacitly of 1.24 million barrels per day, Reliance Jamangar earned the distinction of being the largest refining complex and petroleum hub in the world.

It also gave Reliance and India their rightful place on the global refining map. I am pleased to share with you that following a smooth, speedy and incident-free start-up, the refinery was operated in a reliable and safe manner through the year. Further, in the very first year of commissioning, the refinery capacity was stretched from its design throughput of 580 kbpsd to establish capability to run at 700 kbpsd.

 This was achieved in spite of the challenging market conditions in the global refining industry and represents yet another achievement the Reliance Jamangar team needs to be credited with. Reliance also earned the distinction of supplying ultra pure grades of gasoline and diesel to the highly environmentally and quality conscious markets of the USA and Europe.

Further, alkylates which are used as blendstock for making premium ultra high-purity gasoline were produced and exported from India for the first time. Reliance also became the first refinery in India to produce and supply Low Sulfur Diesel to the growing Indian market and meet Bharat 4 specifications. Reliance will continue its journey of maximizing margins from the Jamnagar complex through further value addition.

I am pleased to share with you that, along with the petrochemical facilities, Reliance will go ahead and build one of the largest coke gasification facilities in the world. This will significantly increase the complexity and profitability of the refinery and also make it more environmentally friendly. This will also pave the way for further value addition opportunities in the petro-chemicals area.

This will further enhance bottom-of-the-barrel conversion making it a "Bottomless Refinery" in terms of value creation. The new petroleum refinery with superior gross margins coupled with value addition through Off gas Cracker, Paraxylene and Coke gasification will significantly enhance the profitability from the Jamnagar complex. 

8. EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION

Dear Shareowners,

The oil and gas exploration and production business has been at the vanguard of the transformational endeavours of Reliance. The game changing discovery in 2002, coupled with flawless execution in commissioning and operations of one of the world's largest deepwater production facilities, has catapulted Reliance into an elite league of Global Deepwater Companies.

The commissioning and stabilisation of the KG D6 project in a record time marks a proud new milestone in the journey of Reliance. We are committed and now poised, to make a material difference to the global energy industry, and to the energy security of India.

Within just one year of start-up, Reliance has ramped-up production at KG-D6 and supplied about 510 billion cubic feet of natural gas to the Nation. This was achieved through uninterrupted operations, spanning 365 days. The production level now exceeds 60 MMSCMD of natural gas and over 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

This achievement is without parallel in deepwater gas production systems globally. Health, Safety and Environment remain the highest priority for us. We are continuously striving to enhance our Systems and Processes as there is absolutely no room for compromise or complacency on this front.

Even as these fields continue to perform as per expectations, Reliance's Exploration and Production activities in India continue to surge. The focus is on Growth, Production Assurance, Safety and Reserves Accretion. The emphasis is now on long term production sustenance through Reservoir Management and optimization. Reliance has intensified its exploration campaigns across the deepwater basins in the East Coast, with the objective of doubling the proven reserves base in the next three years.

Having made 49 oil and gas discoveries in less than a decade as an operator, the impetus is now on converting this established resource base into production. Accelerated development of discoveries in the blocks KG D6 in the Krishna-Godavari basin, NEC 25 in the Mahanadi basin, CB10 in the Cambay basin and Coal Bed Methane in Sohagpur, Madhya Pradesh are our priorities.

All these endeavors in oil and gas exploration and production would result in unprecedented value accretion to Reliance shareholders and greater energy security for India.

9. INTERNATIONAL OIL AND GAS

Dear Shareowners,

Over the years, Reliance has built an international portfolio in conventional oil & gas plays spanning over 14 blocks in 7 countries. These assets are at various stages of maturity in the E&P value chain. The year ahead promises to be an exciting one for us. We shall be drilling the first exploration wells in our assets in Kurdistan in Northern Iraq and in East Timor.

In Colombia, Yemen, and Oman we shall continue our efforts through application of cutting edge technology to establish the presence of petroleum systems within our acreages. Shale Gas is the most promising development in the energy area in North America. It is likely to overtake both conventional gas as well as liquid fuels as a source of energy within the next decade. It promises to transform the energy landscape by making available clean gas to supplement other energy sources.

Shale gas development represents a low level of geological risk as the gas is trapped in rock across a wide geographical region in excess of tens of millions of acres. Reliance aspires to build a significant position in the shale gas business. We will enhance efficiencies across the chain by drawing on our experience in drilling and project management.

We will commit capital alongside proven low cost operators to accelerate the development of this resource. During the year, Reliance took a significant first step by entering into a partnership with Atlas Energy to acquire a 40% interest in Atlas's core Marcellus shale acreage position in the USA.

With this, Reliance has access to approximately 343,000 acres of undeveloped land with estimated gross resource in excess of 13 trillion cubic feet of gas. We will continue to pursue such joint development opportunities with the best operators as well as on our own to build a substantial upstream business in North America.

10. ORGANISED RETAILING

Dear Shareholders,

I have spoken to you earlier about organised retailing being a major growth engine for Reliance. The past year has only helped reinforce this conviction. In a short span of three and a half years since the launch of its first store, the Retail business has rapidly grown to become one of the largest pan-India retailers.

For the financial year ending 31st March 2010, it had revenues in excess of Rs.4500 crores, and it currently operates nearly 1150 stores, in 86 cities across 14 states. You will recall that one of the key strategic imperatives of Reliance Retail was to address the food supply chain, and to build deep relationships with customers, farmers and other producers.

I am glad to report that our concerted efforts in this direction over the last three years have already made Reliance Retail the largest food retailer in the country. As Reliance Retail crosses this milestone, I want to take this opportunity to say a special "thank you" to our nearly two lakh farmer partners, and our nearly 55 lakh RelianceOne membership customers who have been a bedrock of support for us in this growth story.

As you know, Reliance Retail has adopted a multi-format strategy. It operates through multiple distinct formats which are broadly classified into "Value" formats and "Specialty" formats. During the year, even as they continued to grow at a steady pace, our "Value" formats – Reliance Fresh, Reliance Super and Reliance Mart reoriented themselves around a brand new expression – "Aapki Khushi, Hamari Khushi".

This simple, but powerful phrase, embodies its vision to generate inclusive growth and prosperity for all its key stakeholders – including employees, farmers, customers, vendors and supply chain partners.

I believe that the business has built the right fundamentals, and its customer-centric, people-focussed and community-led business model positions it for strong and profitable growth over the coming years. With respect to our "Specialty" formats too, each of them has developed its own winning formula for its market segment, and is currently in the process of scaling up rapidly to become market leaders in their businesses.

Take our electronics specialty store - Reliance Digital. Reliance Digital has focussed on serving a growing need for choice and value. Similar is the case with - Reliance Trends – our apparel specialty format, - Reliance Footprints – our footwear specialty format, - Reliance TimeOut – our books and music format and - Reliance Jewels – our Jewellery format.

As these formats roll out their ambitious expansion plans, we find that our strategy of investing upfront in creating a solid back-end, especially a robust supply chain, was the correct strategy. Such a strong foundation enables these formats to pursue growth without any operational missteps. During the last year, in addition to our own stores, Reliance also expanded the retail businesses through partnership with leading global players.

 Our joint venture operations with Marks & Spencer not only continued to expand its store presence, but also in fine tuning its offerings to suit the Indian market in terms of product range and superior value.

Our joint venture with Diesel, the Italian fashion apparel company, launched its business in India and opened its flagship store in Mumbai. o Our joint venture with Office Depot, the US-based global supplier of office products and services, continued to strengthen its leading position in the office supplies domain.

Our joint venture with the European optical retailer Pearle Europe crossed the fifty store mark in just over a year of operation.

Our partnership with consumer electronics major Apple, iStore, continued to expand its presence in the country.

We launched the flagship store for Hamleys – the iconic UK toy retailer – in Mumbai As a consequence of all these initiatives, the organized retailing business performed strongly. I believe that organized retailing in India is poised to take off to the next orbit of growth, and that your company is well equipped to be a national leader in this space.

Over the next 5 years, I can realistically foresee this business growing ten-fold from current levels, and becoming a significant value creator for Reliance in the coming years.

11. TRANSFORMATIONAL INITIATIVES IN POWER

Dear Shareholders,

For Reliance, power business is a natural and synergistic extension of our energy portfolio. Therefore, I am happy to inform you about a game-changing development since our last AGM. Reliance and ADAG have annulled the earlier non-compete agreement and have signed a new non-compete agreement.

This new agreement opens up the full range of power business for Reliance, except non-captive gas-based power plants until 2022. This paves the way for Reliance to participate in the whole value chain of the power business, spanning generation, transmission and distribution.

We are ready to bring into full play our investment mobilisation capabilities, as well as our superior project execution capabilities, into a sector that is crying out for transformational mega-initiatives. The demand for electricity is humungous, given the billion-plus population, rising aspirations and the high rate of economic growth.

Lack of availability of electricity in quantity and quality at competitive prices is a big infirmity in India's socio-economic growth and employment generation. Reliance is ready to seize the prospect of transforming the Indian electricity landscape. We see an unbounded opportunity in this space.

We are drawing up specific plans for mega-investment in this sector with clean coal-based power generation projects, hydel projects and also in nuclear power as and when it is opened up. We are also focused on the alternative energy domain, with priority on solar power.

Reliance successfully executed a 1 MW roof-top project at Thyagaraja Stadium for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Reliance is also implementing a 5 MW solar electricity farm at a site near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. This will be the largest solar electricity farm in India I shall inform you from time to time about our progress in the power business which will be one of the growth engines for Reliance.

12. INFOCOMM

 Spearheading the Knowledge Revolution Nearly a decade has passed since I first spoke to you about the phenomenal opportunity of bringing affordable and next generation communication access to all Indians. Much has changed in these eight years since Reliance first ventured into the Infocomm space with 2G CDMA based mobile services.

From less than 5 million mobile users in 2001, India today has grown to nearly 600 million mobile users, and continues to add close to 20 million new customers every month. India is now the second largest, and the fastest growing, telecom market in the world. No doubt, this is a matter of great pride and optimism for all of us.

Unfortunately, during these years India has not kept pace with the world in terms of more advanced communication technologies. Today, India has less than 1% market penetration, compared to the developed nations which have over 60 % market penetration.

Meanwhile, China has a rapidly growing market of over 130 million broadband users. Global experience has shown us that broad-based and seamless access to information significantly accelerates countries' economic growth. The information revolution, powered by the Internet, has created a global expressway of content, information, knowledge and services.

Every aspect of our life is becoming ever more digital. The combination of increasingly powerful networks and intelligent devices, provide us with whole new ways to run our homes, communities, enterprises and our economy. Broadband wireless technologies is at the heart of our search for competitive advantage and economic prosperity.

In my view, next generation technologies exist today that can link India to this digital expressway far more effectively than ever before. It is possible to pole-vault India from the prevailing 1G and 2G technologies to fourth generation technologies and beyond. In this respect, we are faced with a much larger opportunity in broadband today than we were with voice in 2001.

Our company has acquired a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd. to create a nation-wide network of next-generation wireless broadband services. Infotel was the only successful bidder in all of the 22 circles in the Broadband Wireless Access ("BWA") auction conducted by DoT, Government of India. The 20 Mhz, contiguous, pan-India spectrum secured by Reliance through this stake is an extremely valuable resource.

With this, Reliance can now offer fourth generation wireless Infocomm services across the nation. To build this wireless digital distribution platform, we plan to follow an asset light, but partnership-heavy approach. We will collaborate with strategic partners, such as service providers, infrastructure providers, device manufacturers and other participants in the ecosystem.

This platform will be at the core of an Infocomm eco-system where content creators, application developers and global technology players can come together to deliver unparalleled customer value and experience. To seed this ecosystem, we plan to set up a Wireless Innovation Center in Mumbai. Such a platform is also aligned with India's national priorities, by enabling national transformation and "digital inclusion" of its people.

It will empower India by providing easy and broad access to crucial social infrastructure, including UID, health, education and literacy services.

It will provide manifold productivity gains by access to real time information for individuals, small businesses and enterprises.

It will transform rural India, especially the farm sector, through easy access to information on inputs, outputs, weather and other markets conditions.

It will take India from cash-banking to e-banking, and provide Indians access to banking, finance, security and other services irrespective of their location, at their convenience.

It is estimated that for every one percent in broadband penetration, employment can go up by 4 to 6 per cent.

It expands the national capacity for innovation, and stimulates the need for richer content, more advanced devices and applications. The possibilities are limitless. This is an opportunity for our company to claim leadership in a new frontier of the knowledge economy, by creating end-to-end solutions that address the entire Infocomm value chain. I am confident that the magnitude of the opportunity, combined with our asset-light approach, will earn for you attractive returns and increase the value of your investments significantly. In the coming years, I will report to you on our progress in this exciting initiative.

13. RELIANCE FOUNDATION

Dear Shareowners, At the last AGM, I also announced the launch of the Reliance Foundation. One of the first engagements that the Reliance Foundation is taking up is developing a world-class university. India needs innumerable institutions of higher learning and research in order to compete globally based on knowledge and innovation.

The university is envisaged to be broad-based in its course offering, ranging from pure and applied sciences to fine and performing arts, and international in its faculty and student profile.

Like other business initiatives of Reliance, the University is also guided by a transformational ambition – that of enabling Indian students to study in a world-class University in India, and also of attracting the best of foreign students to study here.

In our second philanthropic initiative, we are building a world-class new hospital facility in Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Hospital that will provide quality healthcare for the common man in the city of Mumbai. This new facility fully integrated with technology and high-quality diagnostics is expected to be functional within the next two years. In our third initiative, we are embarking on a project to support innovative, low-cost and high-output efforts in Sustainable Agriculture.

The Foundation will work with farmers to help increase their income levels, productivity and leverage with the market. As the Reliance Foundation gets into gear, it would take up other momentous initiatives. Reliance Foundation will support innovative partnerships in the areas of education, by helping improve the quality and availability of primary and secondary education.

The Foundation will work with the government and other partners to improve public health and nutrition outcomes in rural areas. The Foundation will also develop and implement programs aimed at preserving and promoting Indian art and culture.

14. ROADMAP FOR VALUE CREATION

Dear Shareowners,

As I address yet another AGM as the head of the Reliance Parivar, I recall with both pride and humility the road we have traversed so far. We are entitled to feeling proud because we have collectively created the greatest value creation platform in India's private sector. Reliance has never been stronger than what it is today.

And never in the past was Reliance more blessed with world-class talent than now. And I assure you that your company will become far stronger in the years to come. However, the stronger we grow, the more humble I feel. This is due to the realization that our growth has been made possible only because of your blessings, deep faith and consistent support; the tireless efforts of all our employees and executives, some of whom are no longer in our midst; and the good wishes and cooperation of a large number of other stakeholders.

Today, as Reliance enters the teen years of the twenty-first century in a transformational mindset, I promise you that we will strive harder and with even greater determination to perform our mission of valuecreation. It took three decades for Reliance to create an enterprise value of over $80 billion – that is, over Rs. 370,000 crore.

However, I feel hopeful and confident that Reliance can accomplish value creation of a similar magnitude in less than a decade. My confidence stems from the fact that India itself stands at a transformational point in its history. It took 60 years for India's GDP to grow to $ 1 trillion.

However, our country is all set to reach the next trillion mark in less than a decade – indeed, within the next five years.

Our Founder-Chairman Shri Dhirubhai Ambani always wanted Reliance's growth story to be closely aligned to India's growth story. As India marches ahead to become one of the four largest economies in the world in the foreseeable future, Reliance aspires to be counted amongst the most valuable corporations in the world.

Reliance will of course explore and seize opportunities elsewhere in the world and plant the Indian Tricolour at many places on the global business map. However, as I have explained in my address today, our primary focus will be to create new fountainheads of value creation within India, while continuing to expand the existing flanks of value creation.

It is said that an ignited mind is a restless mind that is unstoppable in the pursuit of its goal. Similarly, an ignited corporation is a self-energised body that sets out to outperform itself. Today Reliance is an ignited corporation that is determined to make an even greater contribution to India's prosperity and all-round transformation.

As Reliance sets on this transformational track, I would like to seek the blessings of our Founder-Chairman, of all our esteemed shareholders and all my well wishers.

Image: Mukesh Ambani with mother Kokila Ben and wife Nita Ambani at the Annual General Meeting in Mumbai.
Photograph:
Danish Siddiqui

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