RIL to make big-ticket announcements at 43rd AGM on July 15

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is nothing short of a celebration for its over 2.6million shareholders, and this year is not expected to be any different.

As in the past, investors are expecting a slew of big-ticket announcements, and details of the recently launched videoconferencing app, JioMeet. With the theme ‘Make in India, Made for India’, further plans for Jio Platforms are also likely to be unveiled, sources said.

Further plans for JioMart, the e-commerce venture of RIL subsidiary Reliance Retail, which has already rolled out services across the major cities, arealso expected to be unveiled.

The markets and shareholders are also awaiting the announcements of Jio Platforms’ listing, probably on the global bourses.

“Reliance Jio is moving towards pole position in wireless with 41 per cent / 44 per cent of subscriber/revenue market share by FY24. With capex cycle complete and formation of Jio Platforms, the focus has shifted to Jio Fiber and creating solutions ecosystem for digital services,” according to a report by Axis Capital.

Deal with Aramco

At its AGM, RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani is also expected to throw light on the $15-billion deal with Saudi Aramco and how RIL became a net debt-free company after it raised a total of ₹117,588.45 crore from global investors, including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners and General Atlantic.

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RIL’s 43rd AGM (after Initial Public Offering) will be held virtually (over videoconferencing and digital platforms) on July 15.

At RIL’s AGM last year, Ambani announced investments of about ₹3.5-lakh crore to create a digital infrastructure across India, with the largest optical fibre footprint in the country. Other announcements included divestments of about ₹1.25-lakh crore of infrastructure into investment trusts, and commercial launch of JioFiber.

At its AGM in 2018, Ambani announced the ‘Monsoon Hungama’ offer, where users could exchange their existing feature phones for a new JioPhone for ₹501. Registrations for JioGigaFiber (now JioFiber) were also announced then.

RJio introduced its smartphone JioPhone at the 2017 AGM, free to subscribers (RIL collected a refundable security deposit of ₹1,500).

At RIL’s 2016 AGM, Ambani, launched Jio Digital Life story by endorsing the Prime Minister’s ‘Digital India’ campaign. Later, on September 5, Reliance Jio Infocomm’s services were launched free till December 31, 2016.