Despite a massive underperformance at the bourses since the last six months, analysts are turning optimistic on Reliance Industries (RIL). Those at Jefferies, for instance, say that the company is a proxy play for India's consumption growth story. The key catalysts for the stock, according to a Jeffries note, include faster-than-expected market share gain in retail, oil-to-chemicals (O2C) stake sale, recovery in gross refining margins (GRM), potential public listing of Jio and even a possible banking licence going ahead. That apart, analysts feel any tariff hike in Reliance Jio (RJio) - its telecom venture - will also aid performance. With balance sheet adequately de-levered, proceeds from a strategic stake sale in the O2C business will create a sizeable war chest for the company, analysts say.
As fuel prices surged in September, the government's decision to ask companies to cut price by Rs1 each on a litre of petrol and diesel came as a dampner for private players.
Protests following the arrest of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday crippled retail businesses in and around Mumbai, the commercial capital of the country
Amendments to the Agriculture Produce Market Committees Act have opened floodgates for private companies and online commodity exchange in Gujarat.
India's rank was further amplified by the collapse of the South American and Russian economies.
Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Money today signed an agreement with Tata group's IT arm CMC Ltd for setting up financial retail kiosks, besides training students of the software solutions provider in finance.
The reason for Trent's success is rooted in its slow and steady approach to expansion. Unlike others, Trent, led by Noel Tata, ensured that each store was profitable before it went on to the next, says Raghavendra Kamath.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have already announced plans to enter the milk-based beverages segment in the country. Reliance Retail, which has entered the diary segment with Dairy Pure, its milk brand, may also expand into niche categories. Industry observers believe that Bharti Retail may also be working its way towards marking an entry into the dairy space.
Global retail behemoths seem to have read the signals right.
About 50,000 to 100,000 people - representing associations of farmers, traders, hawkers, and even chemists from all over India - will converge on Mumbai's Azad Maidan to demand that big corporations quit the retail business.
Mukesh Ambani believes that his dream project of Reliance Retail will not suffer because of political controversy and protests. Speaking exclusively to NDTV, after being awarded the 'NDTV Business Leader of the Year', Ambani said the resistance was much less than he had planned for.
Private equity investments into domestic companies fell sharply year-on-year by 42 per cent to $23.3 billion in 2022, which is the lowest since 2019, when it was $15.8 billion, according to an industry report. The numbers reflect the overall funding winter that the startup space in particular, and the overall foreign investments in general have been witnessing since the Ukraine war began last February. Private equity investment inflows into the country fell by a sharp 42 per cent in 2022 from last year to $23.3 billion -- the lowest annual inflows since 2019 when it was a low $15.8 billion, but still relatively elevated compared to historical levels, said Elaine Tan, a senior analyst at Refinitiv, the LSEG business arm that provides financial markets data and insights.
They were shut when PSUs were selling heavily subsidised fuel; will reopen now, buoyed by diesel decontrol
World Gold Council to double investment in India, views organised retail as a boon to industry
At present, India has 56,999 fuel outlets. Of those, only 6,276 are owned by private companies
Companies seeking to tie up with nationwide pharmacy chain.
Large retail chains like Reliance Fresh, Subhiksha and Spencer's have not been able to do sourcing of their entire farm products directly from the farmers.
The country's fruits and vegetables retail segment has caught up the fancy of international companies even as domestic companies such as Bharti and the Tatas tie up with global firms for supply of farm produce.
Eight companies including Reliance Gas Ltd, GAIL Gas and the joint venture of Indian Oil and Adani Energy have bid for the rights to retail CNG in seven cities.
Corporate retailing of fruits and vegetables - once a domain of street side vendors - seems to be facing more troubles.
Efficient use of data and a great sense of timing are two things that stand out in the Sebi whole-time member's order in the matter of Reliance Petroleum
Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday launched its fourth highway hospitality 'dhaba' in Uttar Pradesh at a company petroleum retail outlet in Kamlapur on the Lucknow-Sitapur highway.
As part of this strategy, the e-commerce major has launched a programme to manage the entire business-to-business inventory supply and management for kirana stores in three cities in Karnataka.
Pointing to the 'dangers' in the opening up of retail sector to multi-nationals and big Indian companies, traders in Kerala are gearing up to launch an agitation, if necessary an 'armed struggle,' to prevent their entry.
A cell of traders in the BJP Sangatham registered protest on Monday against the entry of big companies in retail in general and Reliance Fresh in particular.
When Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was conceived last December, the idea was to reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. It was also to bring in a level-playing field for small merchants in India's fragmented but fast-growing $1-trillion retail market. However, those goals have changed now as large e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are in various levels of talks with the ONDC team. They want to form partnerships like integrating with the network as well as providing their expertise to build it, according to the industry sources.
Tata group firm Trent Ltd on Friday said Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital has bought 8.68 per cent stake in it for Rs 21.2 crore (Rs 212 million), marking ADA Group's entry into the retail sector.
It, however, remains to be seen how much money Softbank actually puts in, what the implied equity valuation is and if the e-commerce venture is included in the Jio entity.
At market close, the oil-to-telecom conglomerate's market capitalisation (m-cap) zoomed to Rs 10,01,555.42 crore on BSE.
From the Sensex pack, ITC, Titan, Asian Paints, Reliance, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, Nestle and ICICI Bank were the major gainers. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL Technologies, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors were among the laggards.
Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Tuesday said it will explore all legal remedies to pursue its Rs 24,713-crore deal with RIL following a Delhi high court order directing status quo to be maintained till the court pronounces its order. Earlier in the day, a Delhi high court bench of Justice J R Midha directed FRL to maintain status quo in relation to its deal with Reliance Retail that has been objected to by US-based e-commerce giant, Amazon. Amazon welcomed the latest court directive.
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.
After Reliance Industries and the Aditya Birla Group, the Tata Group is poised to become the next big name to feast on the burgeoning food retail sector.
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.
A bench headed Justice Altamas Kabir, while pronouncing the judgement, refused Reliance Energy's contention that Tata Power had licence to supply power to only bulk customers.
