RIL's Consumer Bet

Mukesh Ambani has expanded the Reliance empire by betting big on telecom and retail.

- Nevin John

Reliance Industries Ltd.

Revenue ₹5,14,217 CRORE

Profit ₹49,128 CRORE

Networth ₹7,00,172 CRORE

* FIGURES FOR FY21

“I BELIEVE, IN THE NEXT 20 years, as a human civilisation, we will collectively achieve more than what has been achieved in the last 300 years,” Mukesh Ambani told shareholders of Reliance Industries Ltd. during a meeting in 2016.

Little wonder then that the 64-year-old RIL chairman managed to turn the tide during the peak of Covid in 2020, at a time when the entire world was grappling with the raging virus.

The billionaire sealed deals worth ₹292,847 crore — ₹2,39,723 crore of investments and ₹53,124 crore of rights issue — during 2020-21.

At one point, the nationwide lockdown in March 2020 had threatened to jeopardise Mukesh’s plans to make RIL net debt free with equity capital from strategic investors as the transportation fuel and retail businesses virtually came to a standstill.

Mukesh, however, made tactical changes in his strategy by channeling the energy and resources of India’s largest private sector company to to face the pandemic head on. First, he put together a cross-functional team, comprising his confidante Manoj Modi, loyalist Pankaj Pawar and RIL chief financial officer (CFO) Alok Agarwal, to start the negotiations with investors. His twins, — Isha and Akash — too, pitched in.