We are evaluating strategic pathways for Jio: Ambani

Reliance Industries is taking "deliberate steps" to strengthen its digital unit, chairman Mukesh Ambani said in a note to shareholders, without sharing any updates on the planned listing of Jio Platforms that is expected to fetch as much as $4 billion.

"We will continue to evaluate strategic pathways that can broaden stakeholder participation and support Jio's long-term growth," Ambani wrote in the company's annual report released Thursday.

Investors will now be looking for cues on Jio's initial share sale when Ambani takes the dais to address Reliance's annual shareholder meeting on June 19 - a platform that Asia's second-richest person has used over the years to announce some of his most ambitious plans for the retail-to-refining conglomerate.

Reliance's plan to sell shares in Jio Platforms - potentially India's biggest-ever initial public offering - is running into a thicket of challenges exacerbated by the war in Iran.

Jio controls Reliance Jio Infocomm, the country's largest wireless services operator with over 524 million customers. Its star-studded roster of global investors includes Meta Platforms, Alphabet Inc's Google, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Mubadala Investment Co.

"Jio as a managed services provider would provide its proprietary network technologies in select international markets in partnership with local operators," the annual report said. Reliance also cautioned against the continuing headwinds in its traditional oil-to-chemicals business as the US-Iran war drags on. The outlook for the year ending March 31, 2027 "remains extremely vulnerable to geopolitical, macro-economic and policy risks," the report said.

(This is a Bloomberg story)
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