THE DISRUPTOR STRIKES AGAIN

Jio Financial Services has deep pockets and huge retail and telecom customer base to tap, but it faces regulatory constraints, stiff competition and limited scope for deploying predatory pricing

It was truly a revolution when Mukesh Ambani came up with ‘Monsoon Hungama’ in 2003 offering mobile handsets for 501 and making telephony affordable for the masses in just one stroke.

13 years down the line in 2016, Ambani’s re-entry into telecom with Reliance Jio ushered in a data revolution in the country. Over the years, Mukesh Ambani pivoted the oil-dependent conglomerate into the consumer-facing business of retail stores and e-commerce.

So, the excitement was palpable this monsoon when Ambani made another big splash by demerging the financial services unit out of Reliance Industries and announcing plans to disrupt yet another sector in the economy.

Jio Financial Services (JFS), the demerged unit, was listed on bourses on 22nd August. Earlier in the month in a special hour-long trading session, JFS, was valued at 1.66 lakh crore as its shares got priced at 261.85 apiece - higher than analysts’ expectations of 134-224 per share.

At its current valuation, Jio Financial is India’s 33rd most valuable company and the third-biggest non-banking financial company behind Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv. In the banking pack, only five lenders are valued more than Jio Financial.

WHY THE DEMERGER?

In 2002, RIL merged its subsidiary, Reliance Petroleum, absorbing its shares and extending its own stake. Despite the potential disadvantages of holding shares in the same company, legal provisions at that time allowed RIL to retain these shares.

However, in March ’22, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs proposed a transformative guideline against treasury shares, compelling companies to divest such shares within three years.