AMBANI'S TELE, RETAIL CONQUESTS

RIL is first Indian company to cross ₹1 lakh crore in pre-tax profits as Jio, Reliance Retail emerge industry leaders.

- NEVIN JOHN

MUKESH AMBANI WEALTH: ₹10,50,715 crore

TEN YEARS BACK, when Mukesh Ambani started work to build a 4G telecom company from scratch, it was hardly anticipated that Jio would topple incumbents Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Skeptics cited RIL’s inability to crack consumer businesses, since Reliance Retail was struggling against rivals, including Future Retail and DMart. Just four years later, in 2019, Ambani proved them wrong, telling shareholders, “Skeptics used to say Reliance cannot succeed in consumer businesses. Jio and Reliance Retail have proved them wrong.”

Years passed. Some rivals shrunk while some others, including Anil Ambani’s Reliance Telecom, disappeared. Another four years later, in March 2024, Reliance became the first Indian company to cross ₹1 lakh crore in pre-tax profits. In February 2024, it became the first Indian company to cross ₹20 lakh crore in market capitalisation. Ambani cites the accelerated expansion of Jio’s subscriber base and the expansive omni-channel presence of Reliance Retail as the main reasons behind RIL’s improved performance. Net profit increased 7.3% YoY to ₹79,020 crore in FY24, while gross revenue rose 2.6% to ₹10,00,122 crore.

“Jio turned a data dark India into a data rich nation, supplying every Indian home with affordable, high-speed 4G data,” says Ambani in the FY24 annual report. Jio rolled out its 5G network across the country last fiscal, and launched JioBharat smartphones. “We are also making concerted efforts in building capabilities in evolving technologies such as AI/ML, AR/VR, robotics, natural language recognition and processing,” says Ambani.

WHAT CLICKED

Focus on building capabilities in evolving tech such as AI/ML, robotics and natural language recognition.

Portfolio expansion in retail with brands across categories and by acquiring legacy ones.