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For Global Economy Industry, Governments And Civil Society Must Work As A Coalition: Mukesh Ambani

While addressing the Qatar Economic Forum, the Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Mukesh Ambani stated that for the global economy industry, governments, and civil society must work as a coalition.

He also spoke about the major challenges for the industry as the world trying to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mukesh Ambani further added, “Well, I think that one of the challenges is to make sure that we get rid of the vaccination divide. The bulk of the developed world must be vaccinated by the end of the year. I think we in India have taken a lot many steps, and we expect that by the end of this year or by the first quarter of next year, we will do very well. We have to make sure that we
are in this all together”.

“The second challenge for all of us, particularly in the more developed countries, is to make sure that we bring back the economies, which have not had the benefit of stimulus, which have not had the benefit of government money, by really supporting the whole global economy to come back and grow,” Ambani said.

“We must be able to grow the whole world sustainably and not only bring back the developed economies. And towards that all of us — the industry, governments, and civil society — will have to work as a coalition, not only for our own company, not only for our own country but for the global economy,” Ambani added.

Upon asked how business has changed post the pandemic, he said “I think that trade along with purpose and compassion is the way forward. And that is going to get all of us, as humanity, together to integrate and make sure that collectively we can deal with global problems as one, and help each other moving forward. To my mind, this for the global economy is a fork in the road, and gives us an opportunity that together we can achieve a lot more.”

On digitalization, Ambani said that connectivity and communication have become necessities like food, clothing, and shelter, and fundamental rights of humankind.

“We never realized this as acutely as we did in the corona pandemic. Even in India, our Prime Minister had given a call for Digital India, and I was privileged, with our digital services company called Jio, to roll out a 4G network. We were lucky that we rolled out the network across the length and breadth of India by 2018. We have always wondered what we could have done without a 4G network across India in facing the corona crisis.

“So yes, the digital infrastructure was very useful in work from home, in vaccinating all our people, in making sure that our children learn at home and learn online. And I think that this trend of digital-physical will be the new normal and in the future, we will deliver most of our health and education services in a digital-physical sense,” Ambani said.

On sustainability in business, he said that as a society or as a business, it is imperative to adopt the sustainable business model. Embracing the model of clean energy is essential for growth, and to ensure that Reliance Industries have adopted the change whole-heartedly and is trying to transform each of our businesses to be sustainable, circular, recyclable, and fully transparent with the environment, social, and governance standards.

I think that is a prerequisite for every business to survive as we go forward. It will mean transforming our businesses and integrating them with the future”, he further added.

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Business motivation Strategy

Jio Platforms’ Success and Growth Gives Hope to Struggling Indian IT Vendors Impacted by COVID-19 Pandemic, Says GlobalData

Hyderabad, September 1: Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Indian IT vendors are struggling, having been affected considerably over the last few months. However, Mukesh Ambani-led Jio Platforms has transformed into a tech juggernaut during this hour of crisis.Global technology companies have seen a surge in their valuation over the past six months – with the most notable example being Apple passing the USD 2 trillion mark in market capitalization (MCap) value.

On the other hand, many Indian IT vendors are struggling as they have been largely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. While traditional Indian IT services giants have been waiting to tide over the impact of the pandemic, Jio Platforms has transformed into a tech powerhouse. A study by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, stated that while it may be difficult for others to replicate what Jio has achieved, the interest in Jio will definitely augur well for other Indian technology companies at a time when enterprises across the world are gearing up for digitization.

Nishant Singh, Director of Technology at GlobalData, said that while Indian IT vendors seeing such stark contrast to global counterparts is unfortunate, this is just the nature of the IT services business model, which, in contrast to software, needs projects in the pipeline. “With the COVID-19 outbreak, enterprises halted all non-critical expenses, including plans to upgrade or transform their IT infrastructure. This has had an impact on Indian IT companies, since most of their revenues are from IT services”, Singh said.

He added saying that a lot of the faith in global technology companies comes from the fact that they have a pretty robust suite of intellectual property, including hardware, software and ecosystems that serve consumers and enterprises alike. “The growth in stock prices merely reaffirms that technology companies – primarily ‘Big Tech’ companies – are well poised to tide over the pandemic-induced recession”, he said.

A report by news agency ANI stated that big IT companies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL have traditionally been IT services giants. The report adds that unlike their counterparts in the software space, IT services companies typically do not have a large stash of intellectual property, making it slightly difficult for the market to distinguish between the IT services companies. Despite these struggles, the near future should see the market showing more confidence in the traditional Indian IT vendors.

Singh further added saying with enterprises across the world now gearing up for digitization, Indian IT services vendors are set to witness a lot of action. Coupled with the market euphoria witnessed for Jio, the technology landscape in India will witness a drastic revival in investor confidence.

Jio Platforms Limited is an Indian digital services company. It is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited which was established in 2019. The company owns India’s largest mobile network operator Jio and other digital businesses of Reliance. On 8 May 2020, Jio Platforms was reported to be the fourth largest Indian company by market capitalization. Since April 2020, Reliance Industries has raised Rs 152,056 crore (US$21 billion) by selling 32.97% equity stake in Jio Platforms.

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Finance

Mukesh Ambani’s RIL Announces Acquisition of Future Group’s Retail, Wholesale, Logistics and Warehousing Businesses for Rs 24,713 Crore

Mumbai, August 29: Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. (RRVL), a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited, on Saturday announced the decision to acquire Future Group’s retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses for Rs 24,713 crore. The latest deal between RRVL and Kishore Biyani’s Future Group has been carried on a slump sale basis.

Informing about the latest development, RIL said in a statement, “Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd will acquire the retail and wholesale business and the logistics and warehousing business from the Future Group as going concerns on a slump sale basis for lumpsum aggregate consideration of INR 24,713 crore.”

With the latest acquisition, Reliance Retail will now have the access of Future Group’s Big Bazaar, FBB, Easyday, Central, and Foodhall formats. The acquisition will enable RRVL to acquire Future Group’s over 1,800 stores spread over 420 cities in India. It is to be known that Future Group houses leading retail formats, including supermarket chain Big Bazaar, upmarket food stores Foodhall and bargain clothing chain Brand Factory.

Under the acquisition, Future Group would merge certain companies carrying on the aforesaid businesses into Future Enterprises Limited (FEL) of RRVL. Ahead of selling retail assets to the retail subsidiary of RIL, Future Retail Ltd, Future Consumer, Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Supply Chain and Future Market Networks will be merged into FEL. Following this, all the retail and wholesale undertaking of Future Group will be transferred to Reliance Retail and Fashion Lifestyle Limited (RRFLL).

RRVL Director Isha Ambani said, “With this transaction, we are pleased to provide a home to the renowned formats and brands of Future Group as well as preserve its business ecosystem, which has played an important role in the evolution of modern retail in India.”

Adding more, she said, “We hope to continue the growth momentum of the retail industry with our unique model of active collaboration with small merchants and kiranas as well as large consumer brands. We are committed to continue providing value to our consumers across the country.”

Apart from the retail and wholesale transfer to RRFLL, the logistics and warehousing undertaking is also being transferred to RRVL under the deal. RRFLL is proposing to invest Rs 1,200 crore in the preferential issue of equity shares of FEL to acquire 6.09 per cent of post-merger equity holding and Rs 400 crore in a preferential issue of equity warrants which, upon conversion and payment of balance 75 per cent of the issue price, adds the Reliance statement.

This is not the first time Future Group’s CEO Kishore Biyani sold his assets. Earlier on September 30, Future Group’s debt rose to Rs 12,778 crore. In 2012, Biyani sold his most valuable asset Pantaloons Retail to Aditya Birla group for Rs 1,600 crore after grappling with an equally heavy debt of Rs 12,000 crore. He had also sold Future Capital to Warburg Pincus for Rs 4,250 crore.