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Reliance Industries Hits New Milestone

Revenue from Oil & Gas segment increased significantly by 48 per cent mainly on account of higher volumes from KG D6 block, despite lower gas price realisation from KG D6 field…reports Asian Lite News

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has reported gross revenues of Rs 10 lakh crore ($119.9 billion) for the year ended March 2024, up 2.6 per cent year-on-year supported by continued growth momentum in consumer businesses and upstream business.

Revenue for Jio Platforms increased by 11.7 per cent Y-o-Y, led by robust subscriber growth of 42.4 million across mobility and homes and benefit of mix improvement in ARPU.

Revenue for Reliance Retail grew by 17.8 per cent Y-o-Y with strong growth across all consumption baskets, gross area addition of 15.6 million sq. ft.and record footfalls of over one billion.

O2C revenue of the company decreased by 5 per cent primarily on account of lower product price realisation following a 13.5 per cent Y-o-Y decline in average Brent crude oil prices.

This was partially offset by higher volumes, RIL said in a statement.

Revenue from Oil & Gas segment increased significantly by 48 per cent mainly on account of higher volumes from KG D6 block, despite lower gas price realisation from KG D6 field.

Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “Initiatives across RIL’s businesses have made a remarkable contribution towards fostering growth of various sectors of the Indian economy. It is heartening to note that alongside strengthening the national economy, all segments have posted a robust financial and operating performance.

“This has helped the Company achieve multiple milestones. I am happy to share that this year, Reliance became the first Indian company to cross the Rs 100,000-crore threshold in pre-tax profits.”

Gandhinagar : Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani speaks during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024 in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024. (Photo: IANS/Video Grab)

Ambani said performance of the digital services segment has been boosted by accelerated expansion of subscriber base, supported by both mobility and fixed wireless services.

“With over 108 million True 5G customers, Jio truly leads the 5G transformation in India. From upgrading the hitherto 2G users to smartphones, to leading the effort of producing AI-driven solutions, Jio has proved its capability in strengthening the nation’s digital infrastructure,” Ambani said.

Reliance Retail continued to provide customers endless choices through its robust omni-channel presence, Ambani said.

“We continue to offer product differentiation and superior offline experience through stores re-modelling and revamping of layouts. Our digital commerce platforms also provide newer solutions to users with a broad brand catalogue. Reliance Retail also works towards strengthening millions of merchants through its unique initiatives in new commerce space,” Ambani said.

Ambani said strong demand for fuels globally, and limited flexibility in refining system worldwide, supported margins and profitability of the O2C segment. Downstream chemical industry experienced increasingly challenging market conditions through the year.

“Despite headwinds, maintaining leading product positions and feedstock flexibility through our operating model that prioritises cost management, we delivered a resilient performance. The KG-D6 block has achieved 30 MMSCMD of production and now accounts for 30 per cent of India’s domestic gas production,” Ambani said.

“We remain committed to our projects and initiatives, including those in the New Energy segment, which will bolster the company, and help it deliver sustainable growth for the future,” Ambani said.

On the quarterly performance of RIL, gross revenue was Rs 2.64 lakh crore ($ 31.8 billion), up 10.8 per cent Y-o-Y, supported by double-digit growth in O2C and consumer business.

Oil & gas segment revenues increased sharply by 42 per cent with higher volumes from KG D6 block.

EBITDA increased by 14.3 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 47,150 crore ($5.7 billion) with strong contribution from all businesses.

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Business Economy India News

Reliance Makes History Again

Reliance Industries is now the only entity in Asia to have won this prestigious award four times (2006, 2015, 2018 and 2023)….reports Asian Lite News

Reliance Industries Limited has been conferred with the IFR Asia’s ‘Issuer of the Year’ award for 2023 for achieving most optimal pricing for super-sized funding deals while overcoming multiple market challenges.

International Financing Review (IFR) is the pre-eminent financial publication globally for fixed income, capital markets and investment banking news, analysis and commentary.

Reliance Industries is now the only entity in Asia to have won this prestigious award four times (2006, 2015, 2018 and 2023).

This award is also unique, as it is given to only one entity across equity and debt markets, as well as across sovereigns, financial institutions and corporate (both government and private).

Key highlights of RIL’s financing deals in 2023 that enabled it to win this award:

Reliance raised $7.5 bn in syndicated loans – this was the largest amount raised by any corporate in Asia Pacific and the syndication was achieved with largest ever group of 55 banks. This also happened to be the most widely syndicated Indian deal ever.

In the process, Reliance Jio Infocomm raised its first ever syndicated loan on the strength of its standalone financials without a guarantee from RIL. And even then, the pricing differential between RIL and Jio on the syndicated loans was only 10bps – indicating the coming of age for Jio in the international financial markets.

RIL’s Rs 20,000 crore 10-year INR bond issue was the largest ever by a non-financial corporate and was significantly oversubscribed. It achieved RIL’s lowest coupon, and the tightest spread for a rupee bond, just 40bp over the Indian government 10-year security, and better than many state government bonds.

In June, RIL signed a $2.45 bn refinancing comprising a $2.105 bn 4.25-year tranche and a $351 mn 5.25-year tranche. Finding demand from a diverse group of 34 lenders, Reliance also managed to reduce its all-in cost.

The IFR Asia article explains the challenging scenario for corporate fund raising in the year 2023 that Reliance navigated successfully.

“2023 was not an easy year to raise financing. High US dollar rates had finally fed through to Asia’s offshore loan market, causing the primary market to freeze up. Meanwhile, the US dollar bond market was volatile and the cost of funding was far higher than onshore.”

Additionally, India raised the withholding tax on external commercial borrowings from 5 per cent to 20 per cent in July 2023, effectively raising the cost of borrowing for corporates.

In addition to this, Reliance has also received several other prestigious awards this year for its fund raising initiatives, which include ‘Best Issuer – Corporates’ award from Finance Asia and ‘Best Syndicated Loan – Conglomerate’ award from The Asset.

Gandhinagar : Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani speaks during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024

Ambani Tops Brand Index 2024

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, has been ranked first among all the Indians and second globally in the Brand Guardianship Index 2024 compiled by Brand Finance.

The Brand Guardianship Index is a global recognition of CEOs, who are building business value in a sustainable manner by balancing the needs of all stakeholders – employees, investors, and the wider society.

Notably, Mukesh Ambani was placed at the second position globally in the 2023 ranking as well.

This year Ambani was ranked at the first position in Brand Guardianship Index 2024 among the ‘Diversified’ conglomerates.

Ambani was ranked ahead of global majors like Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook and Tesla’s Elon Musk, as well as fellow Indians such as N Chandrasekaran of Tata Group and Anish Shah of Mahindra Group, among many others.

Brand Finance’s survey gave Mukesh Ambani a BGI score of 80.3, just below 81.6 of Huateng Ma of China-based Tencent.

Brand Finance constructs a balanced scorecard of measures designed to identify the factors that best capture the ability of CEOs to act as stewards of their company’s brand and long-term value. This year’s analysis reveals that ESG has become the single most important driving force in determining CEO reputation.

Being regarded as ‘a sustainability champion’ accounts for 14 per cent of variation in reputation scores, ahead of factors such as perceived trustworthiness (12.5 per cent), having ‘a strong strategy and vision’ and global recognition.

According to Brand Finance, the role of a brand guardian is to build brand and business value. It is a global recognition of the CEOs, who forge win-win partnerships to build a sustainable future, redefining the role of a CEO from ultracompetitive entrepreneur to collaborative diplomat. The Brand Guardianship Index celebrates the CEOs, who balance the needs of commercial success, long-term brand building and personal reputation management.

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Reliance Industries Tops Media Visibility in 2023

The Wizikey’s News Score is determined by the volume of news, headlines presence, reach of publications and readership….reports Asian Lite News

Reliance Industries — India’s largest corporate by revenues, profits, market value as well as social impact — topped the 2023 Wizikey News Score ranking as the country’s most visible corporate in the media.

The Wizikey’s News Score is determined by the volume of news, headlines presence, reach of publications and readership.

Reliance has continued to top the Wizikey News Score annual rankings since their inception for each of the last four years. Most importantly, Reliance has improved its News Score year after year.

For its #1 position Reliance has a News Score of 96.46 for 2023. It was 92.56 for 2022, which was a marked improvement from its News Score of 84.9 in 2021.

Wizikey’s News Score is the world’s first standardised metric to measure news visibility for brands and individuals using Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Machine Learning and media intelligence. The News Score takes into account various key criteria like volume of news, headline presence, the reach of publications, and readership.

The score ranges from 0 to 100, and is based on monitoring of over 400,000 publications. It represents the media presence of a brand in publications that matter, and is a standard metric score that measures PR efficiency.

According to Wizikey’s research, Reliance stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of PR efficiency. The RIL’s score at 216.8k in the Volumeparameter, 31.5k under the Headlines parameter, 14.3k under the Publication parameter and 74bn on the Readership criteria – each parameter representing a wide 58 per cent-167 per cent gap over the second-placed SBI.

Reliance Industries is followed by State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Bharti Airtelin top 5.

Role of a vibrant and savvy Corporate Communications team is extremely important in ensuring media visibility for any company.

The continuing leadership in the Wizikey rankings is yet another feather in the cap for Reliance’s in-house communications team, which has won multiple accolades in the past.

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