Mukesh Ambani's Reliance AGM 2022 in 12 points: 5G rollout, FMCG entry, succession plans

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) hosted its 45th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on August 29, 2022. Chairman Mukesh Ambani made exciting announcements about 5G rollout plans by Diwali 2022, investments of Rs 75,000 crore in the petro-chemical business in the next 3 years, and using Whatsapp Pay to pay for groceries on JioMart.

In an industry first, RIL’s Annual General Meeting was also live streamed in the metaverse. Here are 12 points that summarised his AGM announcements: 

1. Reliance's growth trajectory: Reliance has grown into one of the world’s largest and most valuable business enterprises. It is one of India's first corporates to cross annual revenues of $100 billion. Reliance's consolidated revenues grew 47% to Rs 7.93 lakh crore. Also, Jio is India's largest telecom service provider.  

2. Reliance to bring the world's most advanced 5G network on Diwali:

• Reliance Jio's 5G revolution might just replicate Reliance's 4G revolution. Reliance will launch 5G services by Diwali 2022 in key Indian cities and deliver 5G services to each town by December 2023. Reliance's latest version of 5G is called Stand-Alone 5G, which does not depend on the 4G network.  
• Reliance aims to execute the world's fastest 5G rollout plan and will invest Rs 2 lakh crore for the pan India rollout. Since Reliance owns 700Hz spectrum, Reliance is comfortable about providing cheap and fast 5G services.

3. 5G Phones and relevant partnerships: Since Reliance prioritizes the 5G rollout, it has partnered with: 

• Google for ultra-affordable 5G smartphones and Google Cloud.
• Qualcomm for production of chipsets that enable the 5G network.
• Intel for 5G infrastructure, and 5G edge computing. 
• Reliance will also partner with Microsoft for cloud computing.  

4. JioAirFiber, Jio Cloud PC, and Jio 5G experience center: Reliance announced JioAirFiber, which will ensure 5G-like speeds at home. The JioAirFiber Home Gateway is a wireless device, which can be plugged in so that users can get a personal Wi-Fi hotspot in their home, connected to the 5G network. This is an end-to-end wireless device. 

Jio will open a Jio 5G experience center in Mumbai for users to experience 5G before enrolling for it. Reliance also launched a new service called - Jio Cloud PC where users will have to buy a Jio Cloud PC device once. The device will allow users to access the virtual PC hosted in the Cloud via the Jio Air Fibre service. This will save money since once purchased, there will only be updates to the cloud-based service, and no need to upgrade hardware devices. 

Jio Announced AIRFIBER plug and play Device, can deliver 2Gbps ultra high speed 5G internet pic.twitter.com/ti127TJlfo

— Manoj Saru (@ManojSaru) August 29, 2022

5. Reliance Retail's growth trajectory and new FMCG business: Reliance Retail is one of the top 10 retail stores in Asia with a turnover of Rs 2 lakh crore. It is run by Isha Ambani. Isha announced that the company will launch a new FMCG business this year and will start marketing quality goods produced by tribals and other marginalized communities. Across India, Reliance Retail has served over 200 million customers through its physical stores and digital platforms (which is pretty much the collective population of the UK, France, and Italy). Reliance Retail has strengthened its brand presence by launching several new products in categories like home, personal care, and general merchandise.

6. JioMart and Whatsapp Pay collaboration: Reliance has also partnered with Meta through which Whatsapp users can pay for groceries on Jio Mart with WhatsApp Pay.

7. Focus on new energy business & Rs 75,000 crore investment: 

• Reliance plans to focus on new energy so that India can be a world leader in new energy manufacturing, be a credible alternative to China, strengthen its R&D base, and also become a reservoir of intellectual property. 
• Reliance will continue to invest in its Oil to Chemicals (O2C) business and has committed to invest Rs 75,000 crore over the next three years. With this investment, Reliance will expand its production capacities to produce more existing products and create new product lines and value chains like polyester vinyl and new materials.
• While Reliance will focus to increase the conversion of Oil to Chemicals and create green materials from the feedstock, it also plans to invest in green and clean energy as it foresees that green energy will grow over multiple decades. The idea is to be the net exporter of energy.
• This year, the O2C business' annual revenues crossed Rs 5 lakh crore.

8. Reliance will build India’s first and one of the world’s largest carbon fiber plants at Hazira based on acrylonitrile feedstock.  

9. 5th Giga factory for power electronics: Though Mukesh Ambani had announced four Giga factories in 2021, he announced a new Giga factory for power electronics. The four Giga factories that were announced in 2021 were for photovoltaic panels, energy storage, green hydrogen, and fuel cell systems. 

10. Reliance's sports collaboration: Reliance Industries and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will together establish the first-ever India House at Paris Olympics 2024. 

11. Reliance will launch the 'Nita Mukesh Ambani Junior School' as an expansion to Dhirubhai Ambani International School. 

12. Succession plans: Reliance aims to double its value for its shareholders by 2027 under the leadership of Mukesh Ambani's successors. You might know that Akash Ambani is the Chairman of the telecom arm 'Jio', Isha Ambani was announced as the leader of Reliance Retail, and Anant Ambani has joined the New Energy business.