What to expect at RIL's virtual Annual General Meeting?

RIL will be celebrating its net debt-free status and shedding light on the Aramco deal

Reliance's Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held virtually on July 15. About 2.6 million shareholders are expected to be attending the meeting virtually amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is likely to announce plans of leveraging recent partnerships with global technology giants like Facebook as well as a vision to maximise oil to chemical conversion at his flagship Reliance Industries' annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, analysts said.

Also Read: Facebook helps Mukesh Ambani shed dependence on oil

Mukesh Ambani is primarily expected to talk about the $15 billion deal with Saudi Aramco that proposes investment in its oil-to-chemical (O2C) division. The deal is likely to fetch a 20 percent stake and will be a huge development for RIL’s O2C segment.

Ambani, 63, may at the company's first online AGM also give a sneak preview of his vision for decarbonization of energy molecules to create value-added products with almost no carbon emissions.

Speculations are rife that some news on talks of Jio inking a $4-billion deal with Google may also be announced.

The AGM is "expected to report on progress on asset monetisation (INViTs and stake sale in O2C business), more details on strategic partnerships in digital business, growth plans on financial vertical, oil to chemical integration progress and new technologies," a Morgan Stanley note said.

Also Read: RIL's market cap zooms past Rs 12 lakh cr-mark

"We expect investor focus to be on asset monetisation details especially on telecom InvITs and Saudi Aramco stake sale; capital allocation and growth strategy post-COVID-19; plans to leverage the partnerships with global technology peers and integrate its retail, digital and financials business; details on oil to chemicals integration and expansion of oil retail and new energy business with BP," Morgan Stanley said.

Over the past three years, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani focussed on de-leveraging, asset monetisation and strategic direction for various business lines.

Goldman Sachs said the focus of the AGM is expected to be largely on product launches around RIL's partnership with Facebook potentially ranging from integration of JioMart with WhatsApp, additional colour on payments business and launch of a large product ecosystem (Super App) where Jio could integrate its services with WhatsApp.

In accordance with the ‘Make in India’ initiative that the Central Government is pushing, RIL with its 2.6 million shareholders, plans to launch JioMart, JioFiber or Jio GigaFiber on its Jio Platforms.

JioMart, an e-commerce venture, is also expected to be unveiled. It is a subsidiary of Reliance Retail which has already started functioning in major cities. JioFiber is a broadband service which will bundle three connections (TV service offered on a set top box, a fixed landline connection and high speed internet connection) in one and will be sold at lower-than-average industry prices. RIL will not charge for the installation during the initial roll-out, reported Business Insider.

Last year, Ambani announced investments of around Rs 3.5 lakh crore to create a digital infrastructure with the largest optical fibre footprint in the country. In 2018, he announced that users could exchange their current feature phones for a new JioPhon for Rs 501.

Also Read: Reliance's 1st online AGM to feature brand-new virtual platform

Apart from this, the company is free of net debt after it raised a total of Rs 117,588.45 crore from global investors which included Facebook, Silver lake, Vista Equity Partners and General Atlantic.

The annual meeting is expected to be a celebration and a pat on the back for the company rather than any important announcement apart from the Aramco deal, Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market expert told the Business Standard.

BofA Securities said of the five key initiatives announced in last AGM, RIL completed the strategic stake sale of Jio, petro-retail, and moved to zero net debt. "We might get an update on the remaining two - stake sale to Aramco and of Reliance Retail."

"We may get further updates on how RIL is looking capitalise on the digital trends and how it is leveraging and nurturing the start-up ecosystem," it said adding progress/update on other initiatives from last AGM like home broadband, online grocery/new commerce initiatives, Jio First Day-First-Show along with a few new announcements are expected.

(With inputs from agencies)