Billionaire Ambani expects to list financial services unit soon
New entity is expected to unlock value for shareholders and be part of a growth platform
Reliance Industries Ltd. said it expects shares of its financial services business to be listed soon as the conglomerate seeks to propel its recently carved out unit into India’s largest non-banking lender, leveraging the prowess of the digital and retail businesses.
“The new entity is expected to unlock value for shareholders and give them an opportunity to be a part of a new growth platform,” Reliance’s billionaire chairman Mukesh Ambani in his message to shareholders in the annual report for the financial year that ended March 31. Reliance will hold its annual shareholders’ meeting on August 28.
Ambani, following the legacy of his late father Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, has used the annual investors’ gathering to announce big-bang projects and future growth plans. In the past, he has offered free shares and launched a new smartphone at effectively zero cost to users.
This year, analysts are keen to know more about the billionaire’s strategy for his new unit Jio Financial Services Ltd., clean energy and digital businesses. Reliance Strategic Industries Ltd., which will be later renamed as Jio Financial, has been valued at about $20 billion after its shares were spun off last month through a special session conducted by exchanges to discover its trading value.
The newly formed firm, which little revenue as of now but owns 6.1 per cent stake in Reliance Industries, has already announced partnership with BlackRock to set up an Indian asset management venture. “Jio Financial Services aims to provide simple, affordable and innovative digital first solutions,” according to Ambani, Asia’s richest man.
The tycoon has a track record of transforming businesses and has helped the conglomerate to become a consumer services behemoth in the last decade from its earlier focus on traditional crude oil refining and petrochemicals businesses. Reliance is also seeking to make Jio Financial Services one of India’s top non-banking finance companies to bolster its presence and creating an empire that’s similar to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd.