RIL's bet on burgeoning consumer base and foray into new businesses such as telecom, retail, and digital services vastly expanded its business
Facing the brunt of farmer's ire over perception of it being a beneficiary of new farm laws, Reliance Industries on Monday said it neither buys foodgrains directly from farmers nor is it in the business of contract farming. In a statement, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's firm said its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) has filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking "the urgent intervention of government authorities to bring a complete stop to the illegal acts of vandalism (of telecom towers) by miscreants." Reliance said it "has nothing whatsoever to do with the three farm laws currently debated in the country, and in no way benefits from them."
Reliance has around 100 Delight stores in the country.
Banking sources said the debt recast is actually 'Plan B' to help the nation's largest retailer stay afloat.
12,000: Number of people Flipkart plans to hire in FY15.
Anil Ambani's Reliance Power tops the table with 3.46 million shareholders
Among the Sensex firms, Kotak Bank, PowerGrid, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, PowerGrid were the major gainers. HUL, TCS, M&M, IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech were among the losers.
Bowing to pressure from students, the Orissa government has decided not to hand over land belonging to the Orissa State Transport Corporation in Berhampur to Reliance Retail. Instead it has decided to allot it to the Khallikote autonomous college for an expansion project.
If the reforms are implemented, multi-brand retail majors such as Future Group and Reliance Retail might enter the fuel retail space.
Nestle, State Bank of India, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other major gainers. In contrast, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank and Reliance Industries were the laggards.
US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to the independent directors of Future Retail Limited (FRL), including Gagan Singh, Ravindra Dhariwal and Jacob Mathew, and its audit committee, providing data and alleging that there have been significant financial irregularities to the prejudice of public shareholders, banks, creditors, and third-party suppliers. Amazon has said this warrants a thorough and independent examination of all relevant facts and related-party transactions, including of past financial years, by an independent agency. Separately, Amazon has written to Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi, seeking the withdrawal of the regulator's conditional approval granted to FRL related to the merger deal between the Future group and Reliance.
HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Auto and HDFC were among the other laggards.
Ambani said Reliance ended last year with a net debt of Rs 154,478 crore.
Debt-saddled telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd's Rs 18,000 crore follow-on offering (FPO) opened to a modest response on Thursday with just 26 per cent of shares on offer being sought by investors. Of the 1,260 crore shares on offer, 331.24 crore was subscribed on Thursday, according to information on the BSE. Qualified institutional buyers picked up 61 per cent of their 360 crore shares reserved for them while non-institutional investors sought 28 per cent out of 270 crore shares earmarked for them.
The average estimate of 12 brokerage houses stands at Rs 6,994 crore for the June 2020 quarter. This is 30.8 per cent lower than the June 2019 quarter net profit of Rs 10,104 crore.
Amazon has shot off yet another letter to market regulator Sebi, accusing Future Retail of insider trading and called for an investigation as the US online retailer looks to ratchet up pressure against the Future-RIL deal. Future Group, however, vehemently denied the charges, saying these allegations were "Amazon's ill-motivated attempts to throw everything at the situation to stultify the transaction."
Asian Paints, Axis Bank, UltraTech Cement, IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Finance were also among the gainers. The NSE Nifty rallied 171.25 points or 1.52 per cent to 11,449.25.
US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to Ajay Tyagi, chairman of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), to take action as is necessary to comply with the Supreme Court Judgment, related to the $3.4-billion merger deal between Future Group and Reliance. Amazon has requested Sebi to direct the Indian stock exchanges to withdraw the Observation Letters related to this deal with immediate effect. In January this year, Sebi had given a go-ahead onto Future Group's scheme of arrangement and sale of assets to Reliance, based on which the Bombay Stock Exchange also granted its "no adverse observation" report to the Rs 24,713-crore ($3.4 billion) deal.
Reliance has a 24 per cent conversion rate of 'oil-to-chemicals' at present and may be targeting 70 per cent conversion.
Reliance Industries Ltd was the biggest wealth creator during the five-year period from 2018 to 2023 while Adani Enterprises Ltd was the top all-round wealth creator, according to a study by Motilal Oswal Financial Services. The study, based on stock market performance of companies, said for the fifth time in succession, Reliance emerged as the largest wealth creator, adding Rs 9,63,800 crore wealth over 2018-23. It was followed by Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 6,77,400 crore wealth addition), ICICI Bank (Rs 4,15,500 crore), Infosys (Rs 3,61,800 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 2,80,800 crore).
The Indian lenders are worried over the fast depleting asset base of the Future group companies which would make their recovery of dues difficult. The asset base of Future group has eroded in the last two years due to lockdown and takeover of 947 stores by rival Reliance Retail after Future group's lease on the properties expired. Bankers said they have approached bankruptcy court so as to avoid any duplication of legal action and reduce time at the legal forums.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed the pleas moved by Future Group companies seeking a direction to the arbitration tribunal, which is adjudicating on Amazon's objections against their deal with Reliance, to take a decision on their application for the termination of the arbitration proceedings before moving any further. "Both the petitions are dismissed," said Justice Amit Bansal, who had reserved the order on the petitions filed by Future Coupons Private Limited (FCPL) and Future Retail Limited (FRL) on January 3. The judge said the orders would be uploaded on the website of the high court shortly.
Everyday consumerables, such as grocery and order-in food items are the key buyout sector, analysts say, and a major reason for kirana stores' digitisation push.
'Post-Covid world will be different from the pre-Covid world.'
Adani group opened a $1.2 billion copper plant, bought a port in Odisha, raised stakes in a cement company and stitched an alliance with rival Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, all in a matter of one week in signs that the apples-to-airport conglomerate has shrugged off the Hindenburg effect and is back to rapid expansion spree. In the last one week, Adani group has through regulatory filings and press statements announced expansions and investments in its mainstay ports business, diversification into metal refining, fund infusion into a two-year-old cement foray and continuing progress in the commissioning of its mega solar project.
The online pharmacy market, which was worth about $512 million in 2018, is growing at a CAGR of 63 per cent and is expected to hit overall revenues of over $3.6 billion by 2022.
Ordering groceries, vegetables and daily essentials is just a WhatsApp away as billionaire Mukesh Ambani's e-commerce platform JioMart taps into the popular messaging app to scale up online business in its fight for dominance in the giant Indian retail market with Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Ambani's twin children, Akash and Isha gave a preview of the ordering at Meta's second edition of the Fuel for India event on Wednesday. A new 'tap and chat' option allows users to order groceries through WhatsApp.
Debt-ridden Future Group is now focusing on saving and rebuilding firms such as -- Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Supply Chain Solutions, Future Consumer and Future Enterprises, after the Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail was rejected by secured creditors, according to industry sources. However, Future Group's flagship firm Future Retail Ltd (FRL), which has nearly Rs 18,000 crore debt, is bound to face the corporate insolvency resolution process before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Other companies like Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL), Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd (FLFL), Future Supply Chain Solutions Ltd (FSCSL), Future Consumer Ltd (FCL) can sustain on their own and can be rebuilt by restructuring their liabilities with the help of current lenders and investors, said an industry source close to the Future Group.
With the first quarter earnings season coming to an end, the domestic equity markets would be driven by global trends and trading activity of foreign investors this week, analysts said. The movement of global oil benchmark Brent crude and the rupee against the dollar would also drive trends in the market. "Macroeconomic indicators, trends in global stock markets and FII activities will be pivotal in shaping market trends in the coming days," Pravesh Gour, senior technical analyst at Swastika Investmart Ltd, said.
With more than 10,000 stores under the various Reliance retail brands and over 2.5 million kirana stores already tying up with it, Jio's online marketplace would have the biggest hyperlocal logistics network in the country.
Petrol doped with 20 per cent ethanol was rolled out on Monday at select petrol pumps in 11 states and union territories as part of a programme to increase use of biofuels to cut emissions as well as dependence on foreign exchange-draining imports. At present, 10 per cent ethanol is blended in petrol (10 per cent ethanol, 90 per cent petrol) and the government is looking to double this quantity by 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the higher 20 per cent ethanol blended petrol two months ahead of the planned rollout in April, at the India Energy Week (IEW) 2023 in Bengaluru.
Analysts say large firms in these segments don't need loan recast due to the efficient manner in which many of them operate.
Close to 21.5 per cent of this will be sold to Japan's Nippon Life, which will then become the sole promoter of the fund house.
Equity benchmark Sensex rebounded 454 points on Thursday, boosted by gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries amid a positive trend in global markets.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has announced the contours of carving out of its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business into an independent unit with a USD 25 billion loan from the parent, as it looks to unlock value by selling stakes to global investors like Saudi Aramco.
With the O2C business outlook on the mend, the Street is also looking forward to news on RIL's proposal to sell up to 20 per cent of the O2C business to a strategic investor like Saudi Aramco.
Seeking to bring share trading closer to consumers just like ATMs, Reliance Capital's stock brokerage arm Reliance Money launched on Monday Internet trading services through web-enabled retail kiosks.
The revenue growth of early birds or companies that have declared their Q4FY24 (March quarter) numbers is the highest in the last four quarters. The 178 companies (excluding their listed subsidiaries) that declared their results have reported a sales growth rate of 13.2 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), taking aggregate revenue to Rs 9.1 trillion. Including other income, growth is at 16 per cent, the highest in the last four quarters.
After a spike in crude oil and gas prices in October following the Hamas terror attack, prices eased down 9 per cent month-on-month in November. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and Opec+ agreed to a further voluntary production cut in January-March 2024 to try and support global crude prices. The best guess here is that crude prices (currently at $75/barrel, or bbl) will not likely cross significantly above $80, and gas prices are also likely to remain subdued unless there's a further escalation in the Israel-Hamas conflict.