Reliance Industries (RIL) has consolidated its balance sheet after the previous round of capex and is now ready for the next level of growth, Mukesh D. Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL, said in the company’s annual report for 2023-24.
This growth would see Jio addressing the digital needs of every Indian citizen, Ambani added. RIL feels its new energy and new materials business will become one of the largest providers of green energy globally as well as a prime contributor towards India’s 2070 net zero target.
During 2023-24, RIL had incurred a capex of ₹1,31,769 crore ($15.8 billion) against ₹1,41,809 crore in the previous year. It largely involved investments into network expansion in the digital services segment, scaling-up of the retail business, augmented production capacities in the oil and gas segment and projects in the O2C (oil-to-chemical) vertical. These investments were well covered by internal cash generation during the year.
According to the report, Jio’s share in the overall data traffic in India increased to about 60 per cent in 2023-24, even as its investments in next-generation network and digital technologies is expected to sustain a competitive edge and market share gains.
The annual report added that the rollout of the next-generation fixed wireless networks would catalyse demand for high-speed fixed broadband. Rural areas are expected to see a higher uptake of these services.
Media scale-up
On the media and entertainment business, the annual report said Reliance has taken big strides in scaling up this vertical in the last year.
The digital segment is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 13.5 per cent over 2023-26 to ₹95,500 crore, representing nearly 50 per cent of ‘big media’ (TV, digital, print). With more than 900 million broadband subscribers, led by mobile, and around 75 per cent of time-spent on small-screens going towards content consumption, online video is expected to drive long-term growth of the media segment, the annual report noted.
It also observed that sports will be the key catalyst for digital adoption since live sports has always been one of the most important genres for consumers across the world.
On Jio Studios, the media and content arm, RIL said 2023-23 was action-packed with 11 theatrical films, 35 direct-to-digital releases and eight original web series across languages and genres, the largest by any film studio in the year. “With eight consecutive hits, Jio Studios’ films garnered ₹700 crore at the box office – with every second film in fourth quarter 2023-24 being a Jio Studios film,’’ it said.
