RIL-Saudi Aramco deal to JioPhone Next: Key takeaways from RIL AGM

Calling Covid-19 a humanitarian crisis in the nation, Ambani said the organisation has risen to the occasion

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday addressed investors in the 44th annual general meeting (AGM) virtually.

Calling Covid-19 a humanitarian crisis, Ambani said that the organisation rose to the occasion and took various measures to help each other. "Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, our Reliance Family has risen to the occasion with a sense of purpose and national duty. I am sure our efforts of the past year would have made our Founding Chairman, Dhirubhai Ambani, proud. The spirit of care and empathy is the common thread across everything we do at Reliance. We care for our employees, their families; our customers, shareholders, and partners; the country and community; the planet and the people," Ambani said.

Here are the key takeaways from the Ambanis' addresses to investors:

1. "Our business and financial success since last AGM have exceeded expectations. But what has given me far greater happiness than our business performance is RIL’s humanitarian efforts during these exceedingly difficult times," Ambani said.

2. Ambani said that the nation is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. "Many of our employees and shareholders have borne the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic," he said and offered them his condolences.

3. "Had our grandfather been with us today, he would be proud. This is the Reliance he always wanted to see, where each person did their best to help those in need, and be in service of our communities and our country," said Isha Ambani.

Also read — RIL-Saudi Aramco partnership to be formalised this year, says Mukesh Ambani

4. Akash Ambani said that members of the Reliance family ensured our nation’s fuel supplies are intact, digital connectivity is unaffected, and daily essential needs of millions are met safely. "We are indebted to them for their service to humanity," he said.

5. Nita Ambani stressed that Reliance Foundation's top priority was Covid-19 this year, however, it assured that other developmental works including education and sports for all, continued. The Foundation, Nita said, has also partnered with USAID to launch the Women Connect India Challenge this year

6. Nita announced Jio Institute, which is set to commence academic sessions at their campus in Navi Mumbai this year itself despite the pandemic.

7. Reliance Foundation launched five Missions to fight Covid-19 – Mission Oxygen, Mission Covid Infra, Mission Anna Seva, Mission Employee Care, and Mission Vaccine Suraksha, Nita said.

8. Nita claimed that Reliance is producing over 11 per cent of India's medical grade oxygen. Recalling the acute shortage of oxygen India faced earlier this year, Nita said Reliance swung into action on a war footing immediately. "In two weeks, we ramped up production to a massive 1100 Metric Tonnes per day. It would normally take over a year to set up a new medical-grade oxygen plant of this capacity. But it was a super-human effort by our Reliance engineers, who put in more than 85,000 man-hours of work in less than 10 days to make it possible. They delivered what mattered the most when it mattered the most," she said.

9. At Reliance, no salaries or bonuses were cut due to Covid-19, said Nita Ambani.

10. Under Mission Employee Care, Reliance will continue to a) pay the deceased employee's salary to the family for the next five years; b) finance their children's education in India till graduation, and c) ensure continuity of medical coverage to the family for life. Additionally, a lump-sum amount of Rs 10 lakh will be provided to families of off-roll employees who succumbed to Covid-19.

11. RIL's consolidated revenue was Rs 5.4 lakh crore, consolidated EBITDA was Rs 98,000 crore, and almost 50 per cent of EBITDA was contributed by consumer businesses.

Also read — JioPhone Next: Mukesh Ambani's answer to make India '2G mukt'

12. Reliance added nearly 75,000 new jobs in the past year. "RIL continues to be India's largest merchandise exporter and remains the country's highest payer of customs and excise duty in the private sector," Ambani said.

13. Reliance raised over Rs 3.24 lakh crore in equity capital over last year and its retail shareholders made 4x returns on the rights issue, he added.

14. Ambani said that continued engagement and resolve from both sides, even during this pandemic, is a testimony of strong relationship between Saudi Aramco and Reliance. "I expect our partnership to be formalised in an expeditious manner this year," he said.

15. Reliance Jio had a net addition of 37.9 million subscribers during the year. ''We now serve over 425 million consumers on our network. We have revenue market leadership in 19 out of 22 circles," Ambani said.

16. Reliance aims to create a fully integrated, end-to-end renewables energy eco-system and invest over Rs 60,000 cr over the next three years.

Also read — Reliance Industries to start Jio Institute this academic year, says Nita Ambani

17. "We plan to build four Giga Factories to manufacture and integrate all critical components of New Energy ecosystem – solar photovoltaic module factory, energy storage battery factory, electrolyser factory, fuel cell factory," Ambani said.

18. Ambani made three affirmations to investors. First, as one of the biggest energy markets in the world, India will play a leading role in transforming the global energy landscape. Second, Reliance will provide leadership on the combined strength of our balance sheet, talent, technology and proven project execution capabilities. Third, Reliance will make its New Energy business a truly global business.

19. Ambani announced that Google and Jio teams have jointly developed a "truly breakthrough smartphone" – JioPhone Next. "It is a fully-featured smartphone supporting the entire suite of applications from both Google and Jio," Ambani said. Jiophone Next will be powered by an optimised version of Android OS jointly developed by Jio and Google. It will be available in the market from Ganesh Chaturthi, September 10, this year.

20. "Jio is uniquely positioned to quickly and seamlessly upgrade to 5G. To develop a 5G ecosystem, we are working with global partners to develop a range of 5G devices. Jio is not just working to make India 2G-mukt, but also 5G-yukt," Ambani said.

21. Talking about its retail business, Ambani said that Reliance Retail will create employment for over 10 lakh people over the next three years.