Mukesh plans big for financial biz
Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries group is planning a big splash in financial services sector, but may take a path different than those adopted traditionally in the business of money.
RIL signed a joint venture with global private equity fund house DE Shaw late last month for its financial sector foray and is now considering businesses where it can utilise its expertise and presence in sectors like energy and retail, as also its proposed telecom and power ventures.
The businesses that RIL wishes to undertake with DE Shaw include energy trading, private equity, mutual fund, financial service distribution, infrastructure funding as also equity and debt funding for corporate sector, sources close to the development said.
Emailed queries sent to both DE Shaw and RIL in this regard remained unanswered. The final contours of its partnership with DE Shaw, such as the shareholding pattern and businesses to undertake, may be discussed at RIL’s next board meeting on April 21.
Besides DE Shaw, RIL would also look at a number of other partners for various specific financial service businesses, as it has done in its retail business and to some extent in its energy operations, sources said.
