MUMBAI: Reliance Industries, India’s biggest private firm will invest Rs1.5 trillion ($26bn) in its businesses over the next three years, chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders yesterday.
“We will be embarking on this investment, the largest we have ever undertaken, in all our five businesses simultaneously,” Ambani said at the annual general meeting here.
Reliance, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, has expanded into the fast-growing broadband and retail segments in recent years. But analysts have grown concerned about the ability of Reliance, India’s largest private oil explorer, to raise gas production from its blocks off the nation’s east coast.
The company has built up a war chest for acquisitions, with cash reserves of more than Rs829bn ($15.3bn) as of the March-end quarter. Ambani’s announcement comes at a time when India’s economy has slowed sharply to a decade-low of 5.0 percent in the fiscal year to March.
“New projects will come on stream when the global economy recovers,” he said. Ambani was confident over the expansion of broadband services through group subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm, which plans to roll out its high-speed fourth-generation (4G) telecom services later this year.
As part of its diversification from oil and gas, the energy giant has been looking to expand into financial services, retailing, hotels and communications.
In 2011, British energy giant BP paid $7.2bn to acquire a 30 percent stake in 21 of Reliance’s oil and gas fields. Reliance hopes BP’s deepwater drilling expertise will increase output from its hard-to-exploit reserves.
Last month, Reliance with BP and Canada’s Niko Resources announced a significant gas discovery in a deposit in the KG-D6 block in eastern India. AFP
