After retail and telecom, Ambani casts eye on financial services, new energy business

After creating India's largest retailers and telecom operator in the shortest span of time, billionaire Mukesh Ambani has now set his sight on propelling a newly-carved financial services business unit into country's largest non-banking lender while transitioning the conglomerate to net carbon zero by 2035.

The recently demerged Jio Financial Services Ltd will leverage the prowess of digital and retail businesses, Ambani said in the latest annual report of Reliance Industries Ltd.

The unit, which 'will leverage the technological capabilities of Reliance and digitally deliver financial services, democratising access to financial services offering for Indian citizens', is expected to be listed soon, he said.

'The demerger of the financial services business into JFS and planned listing on the stock exchanges promises to unlock value.' JFS's digital-first approach will help deliver distinctively simple, affordable, innovative and intuitive financial services products to all Indians, the annual report said without saying when the recently demerged firm would be listed.

Guidance may be provided in the annual shareholders' meeting of Reliance on August 28.

The new firm, which has little revenue as of now but owns 6.1 per cent stake in Reliance, last month announced partnership with BlackRock to set up a mutual funds business.

'Jio Financial Services aims to provide simple, affordable and innovative digital-first solutions,' Ambani said. 'Jio Financial Services Limited is positioned uniquely to capture the growth opportunities in the financial services sector and play a crucial role in transforming the landscape of digital finance in India.' Ambani has a track record of transforming businesses. He pivoted the oil-dependent conglomerate into consumer facing business of retail stores and e-commerce as well as its re-entry into the telecom business.

Reliance Retail is now the country's biggest retailer while Reliance Jio is the largest telecom company with about 430 million subscribers. Prior to that, he created the world's largest oil refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat and turned the firm founded by his father Dhirubhai Ambani into India's largest petrochemical producer.

Reliance is building world-scale assets to produce new-age material, green energy, green chemicals, transforming its oil-to-chemical (O2C) business into a more sustainable model targeting circularity and net carbon zero.

'We, at Reliance, have a deep-rooted belief that sustainability is an integral part of enterprise growth,' Ambani said. 'Our goal is to become net carbon zero by 2035.' Reliance is investing Rs 75,000 crore spanning renewables, storage and hydrogen, including what it claims will be the world's largest green energy equipment 'giga-complex' and a 100-gigawatt capacity goal.

'The development of giga factories at the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex at Jamnagar is progressing rapidly,' Ambani said. 'The transition from traditional fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is going to be a crucial milestone in our history.' Reliance, he said, has a proven record of creating value through transformational changes, be it the digital revolution through Jio, transforming consumer experience and the retail landscape in India or the integration of refining and petrochemicals businesses into the oil to chemicals value chain.

The company said its first ever green hydrogen production was achieved with firing of torrefied biomass in gasifiers during the year ended March. It expects to start transitioning from grey to green hydrogen in 2025.

'Reliance, as a company, has grown multifold by delivering value to the citizens, the country and global community. Our products are ingrained in the lives of the citizens and are an integral part of their daily routines. Our various businesses have always identified the needs of the society and worked towards devising and making available timely and affordable solutions,' Ambani said.

'The current needs of the society are sustainable solutions which can tackle climate change through affordable green energy and inclusive growth. Our initiatives in new energy businesses and our consumer businesses are aimed at meeting societal needs and aspirations,' he added.