Reliance AGM 2023: Ambani sets succession plan in motion, unveils Jio AirFiber launch date | Key takeaways

Reliance AGM 2023: Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani on Monday set the succession plan in motion, appointing his daughter and two sons -- Isha, Akash, and Anant Ambani -- to the board of the company.

Ahead of the Annual General Meeting (AGM), Reliance Board members held a meeting to approve the appointment of Isha, Akash, and Anant Ambani as the "non-executive directors of the company," the company said in a stock exchange filing.

In 2022, Akash Ambani was appointed chairman of Jio Infocomm.

In 2019, Mukesh Ambani sold a 32.97 per cent stake in Jio Platforms to the likes of Google, Facebook, and other venture capitals and got a clutch of foreign investors in the retail venture.

"The Board of Directors also accepted the resignation of Nita Ambani from the Board respecting her decision to devote her energies and time to guide and enable Reliance Foundation to make an even greater impact for India," the statement said.

Addressing the Reliance team at the Annual General Meeting of the company today, Mukesh Ambani said that the new India is full of self-confidence and is unstoppable. 

"This is the new India which is full of self-confidence, it doesn't stop, retire, gasp for breath, it doesn't lose, it's unstoppable. This India is tireless and doesn't give up," Mukesh Ambani said. 

Reliance has been the forerunner of emerging new India adding they have set seemingly impossible goals and achieved, he said. 

Reliance Industries AGM, 2023 | Key takeaways

Business and Financial Performances 

• In the AGM, Mukesh Ambani announced that Reliance Industries consolidated revenues stood at Rs 9,74,864 while EBITDA for the Financial Year 2023 was Rs 1,53,920.
• The company registered a net profit of Rs 73,670 crore and created 2.6 lakh new jobs in FY23. The total number of our on-roll employees is approximately 3.9 lakh. The number of indirect livelihood opportunities we created is many times larger.
• Reliance maintained its leading position in terms of revenues, profits, exports, market value, capital expenditure, employment generation, contribution to the exchequer, as well as social responsibility spending and impact. 

Reliance Jio and Digital Services

• Reliance Jio posted all-time high revenue of Rs 1,19,791 crore and EBITDA of Rs 50,286 crore. Jio’s overall customer base has now crossed 450 million subscribers, reflecting a year-on-year revenue growth of over 20 per cent.
• The 5G network covers 96 per cent of towns and company is on track to cover the entire country by December. A Jio user's average data consumption has surged, crossing 25 GB per month, he informed.
• This translates to monthly data traffic of 1,100 crore GBs, representing a 45 per cent year-on-year growth. This makes Jio 5G the fastest-ever 5G rollout anywhere in the world.
• Today, nearly 85 per cent of total 5G cells operational in India are in Jio’s network.
• Reliance used its own 5G stack to become 1st operator in world to launch commercial services on mm-wave spectrum. This high-capacity, low-latency layer will significantly enhance private 5G, home broadband, and enterprise use cases.
• With over 50 million 5G customers, we are already leading in 5G adoption in India. And we are the only company with the capacity to smoothly transition our entire 4G customer base to 5G, with minimal additional capital expenditure.
• Jio is only company that offers complete ecosystem of connectivity, devices, support, and value-added services ensuring nationwide availability and adoption of 5G devices. This makes Jio undisputed leader in India’s 5G revolution.
• Jio’s optic fiber infrastructure spans over 1.5 million km across India. This immense scale puts us in a league of our own, far ahead of competition. Our extensive optic fiber presence puts us in close proximity to 200+ million premises.

Reliance announces Jio AirFiber launch date

• The Jio AirFiber will launch on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, September 19.
• Through optical fiber, the company said it can currently connect around 15,000 premises daily. But with Jio AirFiber, they can supercharge this expansion with up to 150,000 connections per day.
• Today, Reliance Jio provides connectivity services to more than 80 per cent of large enterprises in India. However, the potential in enterprise sector, and especially within Small and Medium Business (SMB) segment, is far greater than we have yet realized. 
• Jio Platforms is already providing end-to-end professional and managed services for all businesses of RIL group, including Telecom, Retail, Media, and Fin Services. It is ideally placed to offer these services outside RIL group.
• Jio Set-Top box is gateway to a world of entertainment, from TV channels to streaming content, to large-screen games, to digital apps.
• The Jio Smart Home app includes eRemote for Jio Set-Top Box. You can use smartphone as a gamepad, said Kiran Thomas, President, Reliance Jio.
• Entertainment is changing rapidly worldwide, shifting from linear to interactive. Jio is accelerating this trend in India. Our Set-Top Box supports JioCinema and JioTV+, with leading global streaming apps, said Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio.
• Reliance Industries Ltd cumulatively invested $150 billion in the last 10 years, the biggest by any Indian corporation.

Media & Entertainment

For the first time, IPL was streamed free on Jio Cinema. It created a global record with a staggering 45 crore viewers tuning in. More people watched IPL on digital devices than on linear television, marking a tectonic shift.

Reliance Retail

• Reliance Retail posted revenue of Rs 2,60,364 crore in FY23. It delivered an EBITDA of Rs 17,928 crore and a net profit of Rs 9,181 crore. Reliance Retail is the only Indian retailer in the global Top 100, and one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world.
• In less than 3 years, the valuation of Reliance Retail has almost doubled, notwithstanding the intervening Covid-19 pandemic. Based on this valuation, Reliance Retail would have ranked among Top 4 companies in India and Top 10 retailers globally.
• Reliance Retail crossed the milestone of 100 crore transactions, received more than 78 crore footfalls. The registered customers grew to 25 crore, said Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Retail.
• The company opened 3,300+ new stores last year, taking the total to 18,040. Two-thirds of these stores are in Tier II, III and smaller towns, which is a testament to commitment of making retail inclusive, said Isha Ambani.
• JioMart on-boarded 25,000 plus artisans, weavers and micro-entrepreneurs. 1.6 lakh products of artisans from 150 plus cities are available on our platforms. We work with 2500 plus handloom weavers, covering 50 craft clusters. 

Jio Financial Services

• Jio Financial Services (JFS) is born to accelerate replication of India’s dazzling growth story in Bharat. It will increase financial services penetration with digital-first approach that simplifies fin products, reduces cost, and expands reach through easily accessible digital channels.
• JFS has announced a JV with BlackRock to set up asset management biz that will provide simple and trustworthy investment solutions. The JV will deliver tech-enabled, affordable and innovative investment solutions.
• In payments, JFS will consolidate its payments infra with ubiquitous offering for both consumers and merchants, further driving digital adoption. JFS products will explore path-breaking features such as blockchain-based platforms and CBDC.
• Just like Jio and Retail, JFS too will prove an invaluable addition to RIL ecosystem of consumer businesses. 

Reliance commissions complex, cost-efficient deep-water projects

• This year, Reliance commissioned one of the most complex and cost-efficient deep-water projects of this scale – the MJ Field, in KGD6 Block. This includes a state-of-the-art FPSO, which is among the largest and the most complex in the world with a gas production capacity of 14 MMSCMD.

Reliance's Oil to Chemicals business

• The Oil-to-Chemicals business operated in a highly volatile global scenario. Despite all the challenges and a new one-time tax in the form of Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED), the O2C EBITDA for FY23 improved by 17.7 per cent to a record high of Rs 62,075 crore.
• The company embarked on our journey to transition our O2C business into a sustainable and green, circular and consumer-integrated, chemicals and materials business. The key pillars of this transition are:
• One, We are accelerating our journey to achieve Net Zero by 2035 through use of renewables and bioenergy for a sustainable and green business.
• Second, we are accelerating Circularity and Consumer-integration.
• Third, with technology and innovation, our Refinery at Jamillionagar will be progressively operated as a ‘Chemicals and Materials Feedstock Production’ engine.
• The company is executing India’s first and world-class Carbon Fibre facility in Hazira, Gujarat. Our Carbon Fibre platform will include Carbon Fibre and Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics. Our target is to be among the top three players globally in the Carbon Fibre and Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic composites’

New Energy business

• The company said that will set up up 100 CBG plants that will convert agri-waste into gas over the next 5 years.
• Reliance remains focused on fast-track execution of our Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Manufacturing Complex at Jamillionagar.
• Thier first priority is to deliver a fully integrated, end-to-end solar PV manufacturing ecosystem. This will be one of the largest, most technologically advanced, flexible, and most cost-competitive solar giga factory globally, and we will be converting sand into solar PV modules.
• The concurrent priority is to set up our battery giga factory by 2026. It will manufacture battery chemicals, cells and packs, leading all the way up to containerised energy storage solutions, and will include a battery recycling facility to deliver a truly integrated ecosystem.
• "We will start with LFP chemistry which has been proven at scale for its safety, stability, and life," the company said.
• Integration of energy storage with wind and solar power generation is critical to provide grid-connected, round-the-clock electricity. We are well on our way to prove this integration at mega-watt scale in the next few quarters at Jamnagar. This will be followed by grid-scale deployment of batteries.
• Reliance is uniquely positioned to offer a practical solution to the serious ‘Energy Trilemma’ India has been facing – Energy Affordability, Sustainability and Security.

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, also known as Dhirubhai Ambani, founded Reliance in 1973. He led the family business expansion from textile to oil to telecom but the family plunged into chaos after his sudden death in 2002.

Since 2019, Mukesh Ambani has been slowly overhauling the top-heavy hierarchy at Reliance to improve governance in line with global standards.

ALSO READ | Nita Ambani steps down from Reliance Board; Isha, Akash, Anant appointed as non-executive directors

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