said the company will continue to be Saudi Aramco’s preferred partner for investments in the private sector in India and will collaborate with Saudi Aramco and SABIC for investments in Saudi Arabia.
Late Friday, India’s largest private sector company by market capitalisation said it has withdrawn its application to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for segregating the O2C business. RIL had first announced that it is in talks with Saudi Aramco to sell a 20% stake in its O2C business in August 2019. Subsequently, the company had announced a detailed plan to create a separate entity for the business in September 2020.
“Due to (the) evolving nature of Reliance’s business portfolio, Reliance and Saudi Aramco have mutually determined that it would be beneficial for both parties to re-evaluate the proposed investment in O2C business in light of the changed context,” RIL said in a statement.
RIL had filed a proposal for carving out the O2C business with NCLT at Mumbai and Ahmedabad and had earlier said that it expects approvals by the second quarter of 2021-22. RIL said the two entities “made significant efforts in the process of due diligence” despite Covid restrictions.
“The deep engagement over the last two years has given both Reliance and Saudi Aramco a greater understanding of each other, providing a platform for broader areas of cooperation. Saudi Aramco and Reliance are deeply committed to creating a win-win partnership and will make future disclosures as appropriate,” RIL said.
The negotiation between RIL and Saudi Aramco may now include the new clean initiatives announced by the Mukesh Ambani led-company.
The RIL share closed at Rs 2,473 on Thursday on the BSE, up 0.35% from the previous close. Indian markets were closed on Friday.
In June, Ambani announced ambitious plans of investing Rs 75,000 crore over the next three years to build a new clean energy business to fuel the conglomerate’s commitment to be net carbon neutral by 2035. The plan entails three parts — a Rs 60,000 core investment in four giga factories that will manufacture and fully integrate all the critical components for the business; a Rs 15,000 crore investment in building the value chain, partnerships and future technologies, including upstream and downstream industries; and repurposing the company’s engineering, project management and construction capabilities toward clean energy.
“Jamnagar, which accounts for a major part of the O2C assets, is envisaged to be the centre for Reliance’s new businesses of renewable energy and new materials, supporting the net zero commitment,” RIL said.
