'RIL has strong balance sheet to support growth'

New Delhi: After record fund raising, Reliance Industries Ltd now has a strong balance sheet with high liquidity that will support growth plans for its three hyper-growth engines, Jio, Retail and Oil-to-Chemicals, according to the firm's Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani.

In the company's latest annual report released on Wednesday, he said the company sold minority stakes in Jio Platforms -- the unit that houses its telecom and digital business -- and retail arm for almost Rs 2 lakh crore and raised another Rs 53,124 crore through rights issue. "We now have a strong balance sheet with high liquidity that will support growth plans for our three hyper-growth engines -- Jio, Retail and O2C," he said.

During 2020-21, Reliance completed India's largest ever rights issue of Rs 53,124 crore (oversubscribed by 1.59 times), which was also the largest in the world by a non-financial institution in the last 10 years.

"During the year, Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail raised Rs 1,52,056 crore and Rs 47,265 crore, respectively, from strategic and financial investors, including Facebook and Google," he said. "BP invested Rs 7,629 crore for a 49 per cent stake in our fuel retailing business." These funds helped Reliance reach net zero-debt target ahead of schedule.