Few thought it was possible, but billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio has successfully upended the Indian telecoms industry. Barely three years after its launch, the upstart has now displaced Vodafone Idea to become the country’s top mobile operator by users, with 331 million subscribers. That milestone puts its parent conglomerate, $111 billion oil-to-retail Reliance Industries, on track to achieve a bigger aim: dominance over the country’s consumers.
Reliance is aiming to do more with that improved connectivity too, offering movies, music and e-commerce. The group is already the country’s top bricks-and-mortar retailer, and is snapping up content. The final result, financiers and industry watchers say, will be a company that looks something like a combination of U.S. telecom operator AT&T and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.
Ambani’s ambitions beyond oil have not come cheap. Jio has cost almost $40 billion. Shareholders have been patient, perhaps encouraged by cash flows from the core business and Ambani’s push toward an asset-light model, selling off fixed assets like mobile towers to outside investors, including Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management. Reliance has also shone in other ways, delivering 143% total shareholder returns since Jio’s launch in September 2016, far ahead of other telcos and the benchmark index. There’s reason to hope for more.
Amazon’s massive online presence could help bolster Reliance’s consumer and private labels business.
Amazon’s massive online presence could help bolster Reliance’s consumer and private labels business. More importantly, a potential partnership will help the duo counter Walmart, which last year invested $16 billion in Flipkart, in their battle for a bigger share of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.
In late December, government modified rules around foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce, creating additional hurdles for companies such as Amazon and Flipkart, and giving companies such as Reliance an edge.
Amazon had made the proposal to Reliance for the partnership, but it was not clear whether a deal would materialize, said one of the sources.
The second source said Amazon had been pondering a proposal to purchase an up to 26 per cent stake in the Reliance unit since at least February.
“For Amazon, it is about neutralizing a major rival and allowing itself to grow,” said the second source, who added the company envisions helping Reliance’s roughly 40 brands and grocery products go online.
Amazon and Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. Amazon had on Thursday declined to comment, while Reliance had said it would make any disclosures to stock exchanges as and when necessary.
Reliance could potentially leverage Amazon’s global experience in technology, supply chain and logistics as it aims to connect grocery stores across the country digitally through its Jio telecoms network.
For Amazon, picking up a stake in a Reliance unit could mean getting access to the Jio telecoms platform and its vast retail footprint of more than 10,600 stores across India. It might also add more firepower to their lobbying efforts, as the Ambani family is viewed as being well-connected politically.
Seattle-based Amazon is keen to get a bigger share of India’s e-commerce market, which Deloitte expects to more than treble to $84 billion between 2017 and 2021.
Reliance was previously in talks with China’s Alibaba to sell a stake in Reliance Retail, but a deal could not be sealed due to differences in valuation, according to a person familiar with the matter.