Reliance unlikely to announce IPOs of Jio and Retail in AGM

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is unlikely to announce the initial public offerings (IPOs) of Jio and Retail in this year’s annual general meeting (AGM), as per global brokerage JPMorgan, as RIL AGM’s expectations continue to center on the potential de-merger of the retail and telecom businesses.

RIL’s AGM tends to be announcement-heavy and expectations run high in the run-up to the AGM and this year (like the last 3) centers on concrete timelines being announced for IPOs of the Consumer business.

“We do not expect any concrete timelines from this year’s AGM on the consumer businesses IPOs (Jio, Retail), even though media reports have talked about IPOs of these businesses,” JPMorgan said in a note on Wednesday.

Media reports had suggested that Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is mulling separate mega IPOs for Jio and Retail and is likely to announce the same in this year’s AGM of the conglomerate.

Reliance Jio posted about a 24% jump in standalone net profit to ₹4,173 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2022, amid better realisation per user aided by tariff hike, better subscriber mix and FTTH services ramp-up. The standalone revenue from operations increased by about 20.4% year-on-year (YoY) to ₹20,901 crore.

The total customer base as of March 2022 stood at 410.2 million, while average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric for all telcos, zoomed during the quarter to ₹167.6 per subscriber per month. Meanwhile, gross subscriber addition continued to remain strong with total gross addition of 35.5 million in 4Q FY22 with sustained traction in mobility and FTTH (fibre to the home) businesses.

Reliance Retail reported a net profit of ₹2,139 crore for the quarter ending March 2022, down about 5% from the same quarter last year. Revenues from RIL’s retail and telecom segments grew by nearly 27% and 11% YoY, respectively. Together, these segments accounted for 34% of revenues.

Mukesh Ambani chairs and runs Reliance Industries, which has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom and retail. Almost 60% of Reliance’s revenue comes from oil-refining and petrochemicals, though, the conglomerate has been reducing its dependence on oil-refining by diversifying into retail, telecommunications and technology. Livemint