Reliance Group AGM Highlights | After The Bell | CNBC-TV18

🎥 Mar 18, 2019 📺 CNBC-TV18 ⏱ 5m 👁 4560 views

Anil Ambani's Reliance Group held 6 back to back marathon AGMs including that of the newly listed Reliance Home Finance and AMC. He addressed several developments in the group's different businesses. Here's a special report on the highlights of the company's AGM. CNBC-TV18 is India's No.1 Business medium and the undisputed leader in business news. The channel's benchmark coverage extends from corporate news, financial markets coverage, expert perspective on investing and management to industry verticals and beyond. CNBC-TV18 has been constantly innovating with new genres of programming that h...

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About Anil Ambani

Anil Ambani, chairman of the Reliance Group, has been addressing the company's financial situation and debt reduction efforts. In a February 2020 media conference call, Ambani stated that the Reliance Group had made aggregate debt servicing payments of over ₹35,000 crore in the 14-month period from April 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019, comprising principal repayments of ₹25,000 crore and interest payments of nearly ₹11,000 crore. He said that these payments were made "in the face of insurmountable odds and the most challenging financial environment in the country" and that lenders had provided "zero net additional liquidity or debt to any entity of the Reliance group" during that period. Ambani added that the group was "fully committed to meet all our future debt servicing obligations in a timely manner through further asset monetization plans." Ambani has also commented on the broader telecom sector and the group's defense business. In 2019, he stated that political parties were "misinformed, misdirected and misled by malicious vested interests and corporate rivals" regarding the Rafale fighter jet deal, and said that Reliance's role was limited to offset-related export opportunities for Indian defense manufacturers. In earlier appearances, Ambani discussed the "virtual merger" between Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio through spectrum sharing and trading agreements, and introduced his son Anmol Ambani as a director on the Reliance Capital board, attributing a 40% rise in the company's stock price to an "Anmol effect."

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Anil Ambani's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (7 segments)

Narrator0:00

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Reliance Group held six back-to-back marathon AGMs, including that of the newly listed Reliance Home Finance. Anil Ambani attempted to address several developments in telecom, infrastructure, and power verticals. Ambani said that he is looking at selling the remaining business in RCom after the completion of its spectrum and tower business sale to Jio. He also spoke on the controversial Rafale deal, saying that the political parties are misled and misinformed on the issue. Here's a special bureau report from the AGMs.

The day began with the annual general meeting of RCom. The most important point made in Reliance Communications' AGM by Anil Ambani was that the new RCom, which is basically the enterprise, the data, the submarine, and the international voice business, basically the business that is left after the sale of most of their towers, the spectrum, and the heavy telecom assets, even the new RCom business is going to be further monetized. What Anil Ambani says is that he is at this point in time in conversation with lenders, 100% of lenders, which includes bondholders, Chinese banks, foreign and Indian lenders, have given an in-principle nod to the approval to the resolution plan. And the timeline for the deals, for instance, the tower deal is going to be completed very soon, the spectrum sale, trading and sharing to Jio is going to be completed, but only after the DoT nod, so that's the only last hurdle left. And lastly, the company was looking at selling DTH at one point, and Ambani says that he now wants to develop it, and over a period of ten years they are going to be developing the DTH, post which the shareholders are expected to get a value of about 25,000 crores on the development of DTH.

Anil Ambani2:00

100% of all the lenders are fully supportive of the company's resolution plan, and I have in-principle approved the resolution plan, which we hope will be completed over the next few months.

Narrator2:21

Well, while RCom's AGM was on, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power AGMs were compared to Reliance Communications. Remember, this is the first annual general meeting of these companies since the Mumbai power business was sold off to Adani. Let's talk about Reliance Infrastructure first. The big project that the company is going to focus on over the next five years is the Bandra-Versova sea link. Anil Ambani saying that this project will be completed in the next five years. He's targeting growth opportunities of three lakh crores over the next two years, saying that he'll end up with an order book of 50,000 crores by 2020. Speaking a little bit about the Rafale deal, Anil Ambani clarifying that political parties are being misled and misinformed by certain entities with malicious intent. All these jets are going to be made in France, and Reliance Defence only comes into the picture for the offset clause, that's to provide export opportunities for Indian defence manufacturers. Speaking a little bit about Reliance Power, a very short annual general meeting, just lasting about 40 minutes, and Ambani highlighting the challenges that the Indian power sector is facing, specifically thermal-based power plants, saying that renewable is a silver lining, especially solar and wind, and saying that Reliance Power has enough of a fuel supply and enough of a diversified business portfolio and energy mix to keep them going for the next few years, but they will only continue to chase conservative growth opportunities. So, much more subdued Anil Ambani at least at these two AGMs.

Anil Ambani3:41

These political parties have been misinformed, misdirected, and misled by malicious vested interests and corporate rivals on this subject. All the 36 Rafale fighter jets are to be exported from France. Reliance's role is to be a partner for exports, which is called as offsets. We are committed to the defence sector, and we are committed to play a leading role in national security and to serve our armed forces.

Narrator4:16

Interestingly, this was the first annual general meeting for both Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Nippon Life Insurance after both of these companies went public last year. And then back again at the Reliance Capital annual general meeting, some of the key highlights included the fact that the company says it will dramatically reduce debt by divesting all non-core assets over the course of the next 12 to 18 months. Reliance General Insurance is a subsidiary that will be listed during the course of this financial year to unlock value, and Reliance Health Insurance is another new venture that the company will start very, very shortly. And lastly, in the commodity exchange business, they're already the third-largest player, and they hope to expand further in this region.