Highlights
Brazil: mobile signals and mango trees
Samsung Galaxy S4: going the distance
Lane Crawford: bold bets in China
Zenith Bank makes its own way
Chart of the Week: woes of Malaysia’s exporters

Tag: Reliance Industries

India’s Ambanis – the power of love?

May 8, 2013 11:20am by Avantika Chilkoti
Share
Share this on

Last month, India’s once-feuding Ambani brothers made their first step towards reconciliation since they carved up their father’s Reliance business in 2005. Investors and hacks all pricked up their ears; the news that Mukesh, the elder brother, was providing businesses for the younger Anil’s beleaguered operations was surely to be welcomed.

Anil Ambani’s companies have seen their market value soar since the deal was announced – shares in Reliance Communications (RCom) have almost doubled in price. But is this just a reflection on the value of brotherly love? Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , , Posted in Asia, India |

Ambani telecom deal: sharing is caring

Apr 2, 2013 3:41pm by Avantika Chilkoti
Share
Share this on

After tearing apart their father’s conglomerate, which started out producing polyester, the Ambani brothers appear to be patching things up.

After years of rumours, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm has signed a Rs12bn ($220m) deal with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications to use its inter-city fibreoptic network. And this may well be just a taster for a far bigger deal to come, involving the younger brother’s telecoms towers business. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Asia, India |

India: corporate bond market held back by bureaucratic red tape

Feb 5, 2013 1:39am by Avantika Chilkoti
Share
Share this on

Last week, Reliance became the first Indian company to issue a perpetual bond. The oversubscribed $800m issue, rated BAA2 by Moody’s, was a landmark in a national corporate bond market that has long struggled to develop and expand.

With bullish foreign investors hungry for emerging market bonds, they might be interested in putting more money into India’s corporate bonds. But there’s really not a lot to buy. Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in Asia, India |
From FT.com January 30, 2013

Reliance Industries has raised $800m via a perpetual bond with no penalty clause, the first Indian company to issue a “for life” perpetual as it seeks to exploit record low interest rates and strong demand for Asian credit. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in India |

RIL OK’d for production increase but price issue unresolved

Oct 25, 2012 11:41am by Neil Munshi
Share
Share this on

Photo: Bloomberg

Two months after it got government approval for plans to increase production at its flagging flagship natural gas field, KG-D6, Reliance Industries has received a letter making that approval official (ah, Indian bureaucracy). Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in Asia, India |

RIL shaves $3bn off KG-D6 investment

Oct 8, 2012 2:33pm by Neil Munshi
Share
Share this on

Shares in Reliance Industries closed down 4.5 per cent on Monday on news that the company has dramatically scaled back investment plans for KG-D6, the underperforming natural gas field it co-owns with BP, following the announcement that Morgan Stanley had downgraded the stock to underweight.

The Press Trust of India reports that RIL will cut its investment in KG-D6 by around $3bn. Instead of the $9bn the company had proposed to spend on the block, it now plans to add just $235m to the $5.7bn it has already spent. Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in Asia, India |

RIL: putting a hold on oil and gas exploration in India?

Oct 3, 2012 1:37pm by Neil Munshi
Share
Share this on

Reliance Industries plans on investing upwards of $20bn in its petrochemicals, refining, retail and telecoms businesses over the next few years. But on oil and gas exploration – one of its most important businesses – it may not spend a penny.

The reason? In a word, Delhi. The government has not approved a single oil and gas project for the company – including additional capex at the blooming boondoggle that is the KG-D6 natural gas field co-owned with BP – and it maintains a tight hold on the price at which companies are allowed to sell natural gas. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Asia, India |

Reliance Industries: doubts over shale

Aug 23, 2012 4:30pm by Neil Munshi
Share
Share this on

A research note released Thursday by a leading Indian broker warned Reliance Industries may be forced to write-down a portion of its $3.5bn in US shale assets because of low natural gas and natural gas liquids prices and increased production costs.

Any such write down would likely be temporary in nature – it would, essentially, be the company saying: “prices are too low to make extracting these reserves worth it, so we’re going to wait a few years for prices to climb and bring them back on the books then.” Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in India |

India energy crisis: import gas, says BCG

Aug 22, 2012 10:01am by James Crabtree
Share
Share this on

After the humiliation of last month’s power cuts, India faces the tricky conundrum of how to keep its lights on in future. The answer? Import gas, and lots of it, at least if a report out on Wednesday from Boston Consulting Group is to be believed. Continue reading »

Tags: , , Posted in India |

India Inc’s dormant $167bn

Aug 20, 2012 11:24am by Neil Munshi
Share
Share this on

It may seem no bad thing that India Inc is sitting on a mountain of cash – over $167bn at the end of March for the top listed 500 companies, according to the Economic Times. With the economy slowing and earnings weak  – from State Bank of India to Bharti Airtel – the money might come in useful.

But in reality, the 26 per cent increase in net cash over the past three years is worrying evidence of the concerns India’s corporate leaders have over the economy. With industrial production flat, growth slackening, and inflation running high, these companies are unlikely to spend their reserves anytime soon. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in India |

RIL: sharing boosts shares

Aug 6, 2012 11:07am by Neil Munshi
Share
Share this on

Shares in Reliance Industries rose over 5 per cent Monday on news that the company had agreed to share information on its biggest natural gas asset, the underperforming KG-D6 gas field, with the government – a move which could alleviate some of the tension between the two parties.

The spike in share price comes the day before the gas field’s management committee, headed by the country’s top hydrocarbon regulator, is set to meet to discuss RIL’s request for additional capital expenditure approval. Continue reading »

Tags: , Posted in Asia, India |

India’s tycoons rally to support world’s least successful sporting nation

Jul 25, 2012 10:10am by James Crabtree
Share
Share this on

Lakshmi Mittal and Anish Kapoor with Kapoor’s design for the ArcelorMittal Orbit

As discussed in Wednesday’s FT Notebook, India has a uniquely dreadful Olympic record, consistently earning an unwelcome title as the world’s worst performer at the games and frequently returning empty handed. But this time things might be different – and if they are, some of the nation’s most recognisable corporate titans can take a least some of the credit. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , Posted in Asia, India |

RIL: turnaround on hold as profits fall

Jul 20, 2012 4:02pm by Kanupriya Kapoor
Share
Share this on

Reliance Industries on Friday posted its third successive drop in net profit, only narrowly beating market expectations. Those hoping the new fiscal year would bring a turnaround for the oil and gas company after two gloomy quarters were left disappointed by a 21 per cent fall in net profit to $808m, compared with the same quarter last year. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , Posted in Asia, India |

India: Mukesh Ambani gets Superdry

Jul 13, 2012 2:00pm by Neil Munshi
Share
Share this on

Based solely on personal taste, Mukesh Ambani cuts an unlikely figure as a fashion magnate – evidence pictured left.

Yet India’s richest man has built quite a stable of fashion brands in his retail portfolio, including Diesel, Kenneth Cole and Brooks Brothers. On Friday, Reliance Brands – a part of Ambani’s Reliance Industries – announced that it had added another foreign brand, Superdry, which will join fellow Brit Thomas Pink in the Ambani fold. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , , Posted in Asia, India |

RIL’s incredible shrinking gas field

Jun 21, 2012 12:44pm by Neil Munshi
Share
Share this on

We might need a smaller pipe

Reliance Industries simply cannot get a break when it comes to Krishna Godavari D-6, the natural gas field it co-owns with BP.

On Thursday, shares in India’s largest company by market capitalisation were down as much as 3.47 per cent. Why? Reliance’s junior partner in the field, Canada’s Niko Resources – which owns a 10 per cent stake – issued a release cutting their estimates of the field’s reserves by 80 per cent, to 1.93tn cubic feet. Continue reading »

Tags: , , , Posted in Asia, India |
BackOlder entries

BB: time to register

Dear beyondbrics readers,

After more than three years of fully open access, we are taking the step of asking our readers to register on FT.com to read our articles. Beyondbrics will still be free but we'd like to know a bit more about you, our readers. Other FT blogs (including Alphaville) already do the same thing. Registration is active on beyondbrics from May 6.

Many of you are already registered on FT.com, or are subscribers - in which case, if you are logged in to the site you will not notice any difference. Just carry on as before.

For those of you not yet registered, it's a simple process which only takes a few moments.

Reading beyondbrics articles will NOT deduct from your free monthly quota of stories on FT.com.

Many thanks

Stefan Wagstyl, emerging markets editor

Global equities macromap

Number of the day

-0.2% Fall in Polish retail sales in April, rather worse than 1.1 per cent growth expected.

beyondbrics

The emerging markets hub

About this blog Headlines email Blog guide
News and comment from more than 40 emerging economies, headed by Brazil, Russia, India and China.



'Like' our beyondbrics Facebook page, where we showcase a top story of the day
Sign up for our news headlines and markets snaphot service. We have two emails per day - London and New York headlines (sent at approx 6am and 12pm GMT).

Pretty much everything you need to know about beyondbrics is in our About this site page. But briefly:

To comment, please register for free with FT.com and read our policy on submitting comments.

There is an overall beyondbrics RSS feed, as well as feeds for all our countries, tags and authors. Learn more in our full RSS guide.

All posts are published in UK time.

Get in touch with us - your comments, advice and even complaints. Find out how to contact the team.

See the full list of FT blogs.

BB shortcuts

Regulars Series Archive
Chart of the week
Behind the numbers

Corporate watch
A regular in-depth look at a significant emerging market-based company

The Weekender
Catch up with the week in emerging markets
Hello 2013
Guest posts on the outlook for the year ahead

2012 review
Quiz, charts, most read and more

BB review
An occasional series reviewing books and arts from around the beyondbrics world

Brics at 10
A decade of growth
12 for 2012
Guest writer predictions
2011 review
The year in numbers
The Diaspora Digest
EM diasporas, seen through their community media (Oct-Nov 2011)
Sick brics (Sep 2011)
Brics and mortar (Aug 2011)
Beyondbrics on the beach (Jul-Aug 2011)
China bubble? (June 2011)
Post-election Nigeria (June 2011)
Hey bric spender (Aug 2010)

Emerging markets data

Archive

« AprMay 2013
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031