Jio poised to play key role in development of 5G ecosystem in India: RIL

"Jio with its 5G-ready network and extensive fiber assets, would play a key role in the development of the 5G ecosystem in India, based on market dynamics," the annual report stated.

New Delhi: Reliance Jio would play a key role in the development of the 5G ecosystem in India based on the market dynamics, Reliance Industries said in its latest annual report.

On the issue of floor price for mobile services, the company noted that market dynamics have improved in the recent past as reflected by December tariff hikes by operators.

The government has also expressed its intentions of conducting the next round of spectrum auctions during the fiscal year 2020-21, it said.

"Jio with its 5G-ready network and extensive fiber assets, would play a key role in the development of the 5G ecosystem in India, based on market dynamics," the annual report stated.

In his letter to shareholders, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that there are still millions of 2G phone users, who cannot use internet, highlighting urgent need for India to transition fully from 2G to the 4G era and beyond, and underlining the opportunity Jio has in such transformation.

"Over the past two years, JioPhone has successfully transitioned approximately 100 million erstwhile feature phone (2G) users to the 4G network," he said.

Ambani noted that Jio's success in building technology specifically for India and its ability to proliferate across the country has attracted global technology leaders – Facebook and Microsoft — to forge partnerships with it.

Reliance Jio continues to add subscribers at a rate unprecedented in the telecom world with 387.5 million mobile data subscribers (as of March 31, 2020), Ambani said.

Describing Jio as a key catalyst in creating the broadband data market in India, he said it is now the number one mobile telecom operator in the country by both adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and subscribers.

Reliance Jio is rolling out its state-of-the-art wireline services across homes and enterprises, he said adding all this will help place a strong foundation for offering platform-based digital services.

According to the report, Jio connected about one million homes with JioFiber services until March 2020.

Ambani further said that rollout of the digital commerce initiative will open up further growth opportunities for the organised retail business, leveraging the strength of consumer and digital platforms.

"Reliance Retail and WhatsApp have entered into a commercial partnership agreement to further accelerate Reliance Retail's Digital Commerce business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on WhatsApp," he said.

Further, Jio said that market dynamics have improved in the recent past, as reflected by tariff hikes in December 2019, where all the operators revised their tariff plans upwards by up to 40 per cent.

"During the year, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also initiated consultation process on feasibility of establishing a floor price for mobility services in the country,” it said, adding that Jio would continue to actively engage with the regulator and industry stakeholders to drive growth for all.

On the issue of call connect charges, where interconnect usage charge (IUC) would be reduced to zero with effect from January 1, 2021, Jio said it accordingly introduced a charge of 6 paise/minute on all off-net outgoing voice minutes to pass through the impact of change in regulatory stance on IUC in October 2019.

"This has led to a significant improvement in voice traffic mix as misusers of free voice services have left the network and Jio is now a net receiver of IUC. Jio continues to believe that transition to the BAK (Bill and Keep) regime will hasten the adoption of more efficient technologies like VoLTE, which have negligible cost for carrying and servicing essential voice services," RIL said.

In the recent months, Reliance Industries has secured over Rs 1.15 lakh crore from global tech investors including Facebook by selling a tad less than a quarter of its digital business and raised Rs 53,124 crore by selling shares to existing investors in the past days.

Sale of stake in Jio Platforms raised Rs 1,15,693.95 crore from marquee names including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton and PIF since April 22, 2020.

Reliance may break-up with IPOs of Jio, retail business

After effectively turning debt free, Reliance Industries (RIL) may see IPOs of its flourishing telecom arm Jio and retail business segment, unlocking additional shareholder value, Bernstein Research said in a report on Wednesday.

RIL has raised USD 22.3 billion capital market through the sale of 24.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms and USD 7 billion equity-raise.

"Following the rights issues and 24.7 per cent sell down in Jio, RIL is now effectively debt free. We expect a break-up of the company in the next three-four years through the IPO of Jio and retail business segment which should further unlock shareholder value," the analyst said.

Looking at the balance sheet, Reliance has significantly improved its financial position following the transactions, it said, adding that the net debt to equity will fall significantly from 0.51x in FY20 to 0.06x in FY21 which is the lowest in almost a decade.

Given the USD 15 billion Aramco deal and free cash flow outlook in the next several years, net debt to equity could continue to fall beyond FY21, it said.

Reliance is in talks with Aramco to sell a fifth of its USD 75 billion oil-to-chemical business.

"The key question is what will Reliance do with the significant cash position? We think the priority for now is to reduce other liabilities on the balance sheet such as deferred payments and provisions which total in excess of Rs 50,000 crore," it said.

Given the company's expansion into internet and retail, more investments including mergers and acquisitions seem highly likely, the brokerage said adding that refining and petchem could also see expansion with the Aramco partnership.

"Overall, we expect RIL will continue to invest in growth over returning cash to shareholders," it said.

While earnings will soften in FY21 due to COVID-19, the brokerage believed that RIL is at the start of a secular growth period driven by telecom, retail and new economy related business.

"We estimate EBITDA for FY21 of Rs 86,000 crore, which is almost double what it was a few years ago," it said. "On our estimates, we believe that EBITDA can double again through to FY25, mainly through the growth in Jio and new business, while the energy related business will be relatively flat (assuming the 20 per cent divestment to Aramco)."

It raised its price target for RIL from Rs 1,720 to Rs 1,870. "The higher valuation comes primarily from retail, media and other marketable investments on the balance sheet."

(PTI Report)