Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is aiming to double the size of Reliance Industries by the end of the decade. Key businesses Jio and Retail’s revenue and EBITDA will double in the next 3-4 years. The future growth engine is the new energy business, which will become as big and profitable as the O2C business in 5-7 years.
“Overall, the Reliance Group is well on track to more than double in size before the end of this decade and grow faster in the decades ahead,” said the Chairman and Managing Director in the concluding minutes of his speech at RIL’s 47th annual general meeting.
Ambani did not say anything about the listing of the digital and retail verticals, but after announcing a market-pleasing 1-for-1 bonus share issue, he charted out a value-creating roadmap powered by existing powerhouses RJio, Reliance Retail and new engines of growth green fuels and AI-based solutions.
“When India’s economy grows faster and stronger, which it surely will, it creates more opportunities for Reliance to grow all its businesses and create value exponentially. And when Reliance grows exponentially, which it certainly will, it will contribute more to India’s inclusive prosperity,” said Ambani.
Three of the five growth engines have a valuation of over $100 billion each, and “they will continue to grow faster,” he said, adding, “our New Energy business will be the new jewel in Reliance’s crown. I foresee it becoming as big and profitable over the next 5-7 years, as our O2C business, which we have built over the past 40 years.”
Solar PV modules
In the new energy, Ambani iterated his commitment to spend ₹75,000 crores to establish the ecosystem and said that the production of solar PV modules would start by the end of this year. The target was to achieve the first phase of integrated solar production facilities in the following quarters with an initial annual capacity of 10 GW. The Giga factory was designed for a rapid expansion of up to 20 GW at a minimal cost.
The advanced battery manufacturing facility with a 30GWh annual capacity will commence by the second half of next year, and after that, the plan is to backwards integrate cell manufacturing and battery chemicals.
By 2025 Jamnagar, the seat of Reliance Industries, is seen becoming the cradle of the new energy business. The company has leased arid wasteland in Kutch, just 250 km from Jamnagar, where it has the potential to generate about 150 billion units of electricity in the next 10 years, providing nearly 10 per cent of India’s energy requirements.
Project development has already started with its own transmission infrastructure to bring online solar generation projects that will deliver stable, renewable energy on a round-the-clock basis at GW scale, from 2026.
Ambani said the company had a strong balance sheet, robust annual accrual, and access to the most competitive global institutional capital to invest responsibly in and support its New Energy commitments.
Leveraging AI capabilities
In Jio and Retail, Ambani plans to leverage AI capabilities to take them to next stage of growth.
In retail deep tech capabilities will be deployed, across all its businesses, while there are plans to enter the luxury jewellery segment. Ambani said the retail subsidiary was among the Top-5 global retailers in number of stores, among top-10 retailers in market capitalisation, among top-20 in employees, and top-30 in terms of revenues.
In Jio, most transformation is excepted with the widespread use of AI. “At Jio, we believe that AI should not be a luxury reserved for a select few,” Ambani said. AI services must be accessible on all devices, not just expensive, high-end devices.
Innovations would create new revenue and earnings streams, while AI and 5G are expected to have a transformative impact on sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and education.
Ambani said the partnership with Disney marked a significant milestone in the media and entertainment business as it could span multiple platforms to deliver content at affordable prices.
In its core O2C business, the company is expanding by setting up an integrated vinyl chain facility at Dahej and Nagothane with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes, 1 million polyester tonnes, and 3 million ton PTA tonnes by 2027. With rising cash flows, this would still be a major growth engine for the company.