Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday announced to raise Rs 7,350 crore from two investors -- Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and Global alternative asset firm TPG -- by selling a stake in group's retail arm.
As India gets ready to roll out one of the largest vaccine programmes, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said his group is working with authorities to provide technology tools and backbone for mass inoculation against COVID-19. Ambani's telecom venture Jio was rolled out four years back, offering free voice calling and dirt-cheap data. Today, Jio is India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million users, each connected to the internet. At a Facebook event, Ambani said the government's digital push kept the country running even during the pandemic and is now helping in the rollout of one of the largest vaccination programmes.
Thanks to a $5.7 billion deal with Facebook, a Rs 53,125 crore rights issue and more stake sale to companies such as Saudi Aramco, the target is likely to be achieved by December.
Reliance Industries on Friday reported more than doubling of its March quarter net profit to Rs 13,227 crore as improvement in petrochemical and consumer business countered continued weakness in refining business.
Reliance imported about 1.09 million bpd in January as it had cut runs at its older 660,000 barrels per day (bpd) plant by about 23 per cent from a year ago.
A plunge in fuel demand after the raging pandemic forced people to stay home and stifled the economy dealt a body blow to the firm's traditional cash cow oil refining and petrochemicals, even as consumer-facing businesses, which account for 35 per cent of the oil-to-telecom-to-retail conglomerate's revenues, continued to do well.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 12 per cent rise in December quarter net profit on improving oil-to-chemical business, strong continued momentum in retail and steady telecom unit Jio.
JioFiber, India's first 100 per cent all-fiber broadband service, will start from 100 Mbps and go all the way up to 1 Gbps. This will propel India to top 5 broadband nations globally.
Amazon provided mere "lip service" and failed to provide any help to the debt-laden Future Group as the retail major suffered massive setback amid the COVID-induced lockdown and faced possible insolvency or debt restructuring, Future Group's promoters said in a letter to the e-commerce giant. This is the first time Future Group promoters have written to Amazon after the parties were embroiled in a legal battle over the sale of Future's retail assets to Reliance Industries. The letter from the promoters, including Kishore Biyani, was written on December 31. It alleged that Amazon's actions "lacked good faith" during the March to August period, when the group's retail business was severely hit by the lockdown.
7 rounds have been completed with bidding in all 4 bands
With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 115,693.95 crore from some of the leading global investment powerhouses at a time when the world is deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Isha and Akash, 23, were appointed to the boards of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, the company said.
Saudi Aramco had right from the beginning resisted the price tag Reliance had put for the 20 per cent stake in O2C business, which comprises the company's twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat, petrochemical plants and 51 per cent in fuel retailing venture.
Trial offer is only by invite as of now, but is expected to be extended soon to select customers of Reliance Digital Express.
Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co will invest Rs 6,247.5 crore to buy a 1.4 per cent stake in Reliance Industries Ltd's retail arm -- the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led firm's third such deal in less than two days.
This is the second investment by General Atlantic in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, following a Rs 6,598.38 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year.
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.
Future Group founder and CEO Kishore Biyani on Tuesday said Amazon was fully aware of his group's talks with Reliance Industries for the sale of retail assets that followed the US giant offering no concrete help to tide over the cash crisis. Opening up after being locked in an intense legal battle with Amazon over the Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance, Biyani in an interview with PTI said the US giant's 2019 investment in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL) -- Future Retail's parent -- was for coupon and gifting business only and the same could continue post-retail assets going to Reliance. He hoped to complete the deal with Reliance within two months of Sebi approval.
Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano said the group had been looking for years at soccer in India and the Indian Super League (ISL), which is currently in its sixth season.
Reliance Retail will acquire the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses of the Future Group. Future Group's financial and insurance businesses are not part of the deal.
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."
The length of the main trunk pipeline is 1,385 km from Kakinada to Bharuch and 75 km is the length of the spur lines.
The latest deal would give Facebook deeper access to India, the second largest internet market after China.
"We are delighted to welcome Google as a strategic investor in Jio Platforms. We have signed a binding partnership and an investment agreement under which Google will invest Rs 33,737 crores for a 7.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms," Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual general meeting.
The deal, as well as some other strategic and financial investments in works, will help Ambani cut debt at RIL.
Strategic direction post-COVID-19 and further details on asset monetisation are key expectations from the 43rd AGM of RIL, analysts said.
Reliance Jio to take over mobile business assets of troubled RCom at an estimated value of Rs 24,000-Rs 25,000 crore.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's wife Nita Ambani has been nominated for membership in the International Olympic Committee and will become the first Indian woman to be on the apex sporting body if she gets elected at the IOC Session scheduled from August 2 to 4.
According to sources, Russian energy giant Rosneft or its affiliates, Saudi Aramco and Reliance Industries are in race for BPCL's three refineries - Mumbai, Kochi in Kerala and Bina in Madhya Pradesh - 16,309 petrol pumps, 6,113 LPG distributor agencies and more than a fifth of 256 aviation fuel stations in the country.
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.
The withdrawal of the arbitration will now entitle the two companies to marketing and pricing freedom on the natural gas they produce from newer fields in the deep sea at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore by 2022.
Declaring that the plans will come at less than one-tenth of global rates, Ambani said Jio Fiber plans will be priced between Rs 700 to Rs 10,000 per month "to suit every budget".
Speaking at a fireside chat with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he said the big change driving this transformation was the deepening of mobile networks which were working at a much faster pace than before.
Officials from India's biggest private refiner recently visited Iran to chalk out the details for resumption of trade ties with Tehran.
Italy's top-flight Serie A soccer league launched a new anti-racism campaign on Monday by presenting artwork featuring three side-by-side paintings of apes but the move has been described by campaign group Fare as a sick joke. News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
'We always believe that if you focus on the goal, you will overcome all obstacles. If you focus on the obstacles, you will never achieve your goal.'
The country of 1.3 billion is finally waking up to the most popular sport on the planet. Kushal Das, secretary general of the All India Football Federation, has said the country is aiming to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
The entry of the deep-pocketed conglomerate is expected to heighten competition.
The 2016 upstart, called Jio, dislodged rivals and has emerged as the nation's No. 4 carrier by offering call services free for life and data transmission at dirt cheap rates.
An ambitious project to awaken a sleeping giant of Asian soccer looks like confirming Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's famous remark that India pricks up its ears only when comparisons with China are made. With China embarked on a multi-billion dollar mission to become a soccer superpower by 2050, India looks set to follow suit with its own plan to raise its status in the game to match its burgeoning economic power. Come October, India, most famously described as soccer's sleeping giant by former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, will launch a programme to engage more than 11 million children in soccer-related activities.