RIL Shareholders Look For Cues At June AGM To Reverse Stock Underperformance

Reliance Industries Ltd. has had an action-packed last fiscal as the nation’s largest company by market value raised Rs 2.6 lakh crore ($36 billion) by selling stakes in its retail and digital assets, turning net debt free. Still, the stock lagged the benchmark. And that’s what investors hope owner Mukesh Ambani would address in the firm’s latest annual general meeting.

The street expects the oil-to-telecom conglomerate in its June 24 AGM to announce product launches and chart strategic road map for initiatives such as e-commerce to 5G rollout and net zero carbon mentioned in its annual report of 2020-21.

Shares of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate has risen 21.3% from its last AGM on July 15, 2020 so far, while the S&P BSE Sensex advanced 45.83% during the period.

On investors’ wish list:

• Details of road map to meet the 2035 target of de-carbonisation, transition from B2B to B2B2C (consumer), fuel to chemicals integration for newly formed O2C division and New Energy and New Materials business to provide ESG focus. This is expected to attract new investor pool focused on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) companies.

• Road map on the retail ecosystem through value-creating partnerships with producers, brands and merchants to leverage 15.6 crore customer base.

• Clarity on the operations of JioMart, which now has a presence in 200 cities, along with AJIO—its fashion and lifestyle platform.

• A road map on how Reliance Jio plans to accelerate digital transition for the next 30 crore mobile subscribers, 5 crore homes and 5 crore micro, small and medium businesses. Jio is working with partners such as Qualcomm for its 5G rollout.

• Any announcement on culmination of Saudi Aramco participation in Reliance O2C. Details are awaited. RIL had signed an MoU with Saudi Aramco for a 20% stake in its O2C business for $15 billion. Since then, negotiations have been dragging due to Aramco’s initial public offer and subsequently pandemic-led restrictions.

RIL has one of the largest investor bases in the country at 30 lakh as of March 2021, compared with 25.99 lakh at June 2020-end.

Traditionally, the company’s AGM has had witnessed a physical participation of close to 3,000 investors, besides being watched on television screens and various digital platforms. Last year, it conducted the event online amid the Covid-19 pandemic-led restrictions. The virtual AGM saw nearly 3 lakh concurrent viewers across 42 countries and 468 cities.