Reliance Industries Ltd. aims to make its consumer businesses as big as its core energy operations, chairman Mukesh Ambani said in its annual report, as he seeks to reshape the industrial powerhouse.
The company, primarily an oil and gas refining, marketing and petrochemicals conglomerate, counts telecoms, retail and media and entertainment as part of its consumer businesses that together contribute barely a tenth of total operating profit. However, buoyed by the success of Reliance’s fledgling telecoms start-up Jio, which turned a profit within a year of operation, Mr. Ambani is hoping to see rapid growth from the consumer divisions in future. “Our aim is to have the consumer businesses contribute on par with the energy and materials business over the next decade,” he said in a letter to shareholders in the annual report. “The year saw our consumer businesses attain a threshold, wherefrom they will start contributing meaningfully to consolidated profits,” he said.
RIL also said it was banking on emerging technologies for the next wave of growth. Following the completion of the world’s largest capital expenditure cycle over five years at its Jamnagar refinery at a cost of more than ₹1.5 lakh crore, RIL has identified artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics, IIoT, blockchain, 3D printing, and virtual reality as the set of next ‘big opportunities’.
RIL is exploring collaborations with industry leaders such as GE, Honeywell, Siemens, Emerson, Schneider Electric, among others, to build foundation blocks for its long-term Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) strategy and the digital manufacturing platform, according to the annual report.
“RIL is piloting the use of virtual reality to increase safety and reliability through a virtual walk-through plant environment for interactive training, testing and process simulation for all crucial personnel,” Mr. Ambani said.
To raise ₹20,000 crore
RIL will hold its 41st AGM in Mumbai on July 5, where shareholders will vote to reappoint Mr. Ambani as MD for five years. His present term expires on April 19, 2019. The firm plans to raise ₹20,000 crore from non-convertible debentures via private placement.
Mr. Ambani’s compensation for 2017-18 was capped at ₹15 crore for the tenth year in a row. His cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani, both executive directors at RIL, received ₹19.99 crore each.
(With Piyush Pandey
in Mumbai)