Bravo ril now spend that money

Bravo ril now spend that money

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has raised `1,68,818 crore in amatter of two months, through a rights issue and sale of 11separate chunks of equity in Jio Platforms to avid investors ranging from Facebook and an assortment of private equity players to sovereign wealth funds. Raising over $22.5 billion in such a short span of time is a tremendous feat for any company anywhere. All the more so, it is tempting to add, in these Covid times; but the uncertainties unleashed by the pandemic probably helped investors make up their mind that they need a piece of Reliance’s action.

US Fed chairman Jerome Powell has said that US policy rates would stay close to zero till all through 2021. This sort of a blank cheque issued to financial investors will send capital racing through the world’s financial plumbing, looking for profitable deployment. As the world slumps, India holds out a ray of hope. Sure, its economy would shrink in the current fiscal, but is slated to recover fast and grow faster over the next few years. It has risen from the bottom rungs of international mobile data consumption rankings right to the top over some three years, and the company mostly responsible for this data revolution, Jio, seems well poised to leverage such data hunger of a young population to build new business lines that deliver oodles of profits. The rights issue has channelled funds into RIL as a whole, but the rest of the investment has gone specifically into Jio Platforms. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani wants Jio to be not so much a telecom company as a technology ecosystem that supports very many distinct businesses ranging from retail and entertainment to education and financial services.

Reliance has generally matched execution with vaulting ambition. However, success in its new endeavour cannot be taken for granted. Network neutrality, fair competition rules that will hinder bundling, and entrenched players in every segment, including the likes of Amazon and Walmart, pose hurdles. The only certainty is that consumers and Indian businesses would gain from the competition Jio would unleash.