International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)

Volume 3, Issue 9 Sep 2021, pp: 1066-1071www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

A Study on Growth of Reliance Industries

Limited: Strategies and Acquisitions of
Previous 20 Years
Gurbani Luthra
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Submitted: 10-09-2021 Revised: 19-09-2021 Accepted: 23-09-2021
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ABSTRACT created many successful new launches – the most
Reliance‘s growth since 2001 has been remarkable popular one being Jio; has taken many smart
and a very important case study for financial financial decisions such as buying 23 firms in the
analysts. It became the first Indian company to last 3 years and cashing all of them into profits.
cross the 10,000 crore mark in terms of total
turnover. The company's journey began in 1977 Reliance started on a small scale when
with a Rs 50 crore investment and about 60,000 Dhirubhai Ambani set up a cloth mill in
shareholders, and has effectively given shape to the Maharashtra which spun cotton. Soon as the profits
equity cult in India and as of today the company started accumulating that one mill sprung into
has a whopping 26 lakh shareholders. The major many mills all over Maharashtra and Gujarat. Yet,
contributor to this scenario has been the wisely the most significant turn of events happened when
calculated financial decisions taken by Reliance RIL discovered the oil well in the Arabic Sea.
Industries Limited in terms of market acquisition Today, the company‘s oil and gas assets include
and consolidation. This paper discusses some of the KG D6, Panna- Mukta, Tapti and two CBM blocks.
major financial takeaways from RILs decisions; RIL also has two joint ventures in North American
both success and failure. oil and gas share plays – Pioneer Natural Resources
and Chevron. It made Reliance the most profitable
I. INTRODUCTION company in India and Mukesh Ambani the 3rd
Over the recent years if there has been one richest person in the world.
company which managed to grab eyeballs and
newspaper headlines every year it is undeniably Here we also take a look at the formation
Reliance Industries Limited. Reliance has been of Anil Ambani‘s Reliance group which happened
making rounds in the newspaper almost every due to a split among the two brothers over control
quarter for some new acquisition or expansion or in Reliance Industries Limited. It is necessary to
new launch. The buzz that it creates is almost assess Reliance Group‘s financial decisions
incomparable with any other company in the Indian because they not only got Anil Ambani into huge
market. After all, Reliance is the top contributor in debts but also potentially strong businesses failed
India‘s GDP, owner of Jio which is the largest in RG. Therefore, this paper strives to look into the
telecom company in India, owner of the number 1 financial decisions made by RIL which made it the
petrochemical and polyester business in India, most profitable company and try to learn from the
owns the largest physical retail chain Reliance company‘s highly calculated decisions.
Retail, no. 1 in terms of market capitalisation in the
country and of course it‘s CEO Mukesh Ambani is II. LITERATURE REVIEW
the largest single taxpayer in India and has been a It would seem that the growth of Reliance
part of the top 5 richest persons in the world for 11 was a specific reflection of the fact that in Indian
years. capitalism, business success has heavily relied
The journey of Reliance has been upon securing means—technology, financing and
remarkable and the one thing they have taught state support—from the outside rather than on
everyone is that ―Dream and Deliver‖. The creating managerial and technological capabilities
company never shied away from taking risks or within firms that would be proprietary in nature.
doing something new or a completely new Reliance‘s success and the way that it was
marketing strategy or some highly unpredictable achieved, however, serves to establish that the
financial move. Over the last 10 years reliance has degree of influence commanded by a business firm
DOI: 10.35629/5252-030910661071 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 1066
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 9 Sep 2021, pp: 1066-1071www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

did not have a simple relationship with its past

business success, as the causality also operated in Research Methodology
the other direction. The growth of Reliance and the Reliance Industries Limited made many
survival among the elite of those it joined thus had acquisitions in the past 3 years to boost up the
common roots—highlighting in the process the product offerings and the subsidiaries. RIL put in
persistence of the mercantile element in Indian $566 million in media and education, $194 million
capitalism. (Mazumdar, 2017, #) in retail, $1.2 billion in telecom and internet firms,
$100 million in digital and $391 in the chemicals
Reliance Industries Limited strongly and energy space. Within 2 years, Reliance
believes in the concept ‗growth through acquired companies like:
innovation‘. It is believed that this concept will act
as a point of differentiation and will provide the Balaji Telefilms (TV Content): RIL has invested
company with a huge competitive advantage. RIL in the entertainment industry. They acquired a 25%
intends to make long term profits by implementing stake in film and television production house Balaji
effective talent management, sustainable solutions, Telefilms Ltd also known as ALTBalaji in a deal
and R & D facilities. (Roy &Mutum, 2017, 169) worth Rs 413.28 crore.
Reliance Industries‘ Media Unit
Network18 is in talks with the Video Streaming Embibe (EdTech Content): In April 2018,
Service Netflix, about a multi-year partnership to Reliance Industries invested over $180 million in
source content. Under the partnership, Viacom18 the edtechstartupEmbibe over the period of three
would create shows for Netflix to help the U.S years. The investment helped acquire a stake of
company expand its audience and offerings in 72.69 % from Embibe's existing investors. In April
India, where it competes with video streaming 2020, Bengaluru-based startupEmbibe received a
services Disney+ Hotstar and Amazon Prime. funding of Rs 500 crore from Reliance. Reliance is
(Reuters Agency, 2020) aiming to connect 1.9 million schools and 58,000
universities across India.
Research Objectives
1. The main objective of this paper is to study the Saavn (Music Content): On March 23, 2018, RIL
pattern of market acquisition done by Reliance announced a strategic merger of its digital music
Industries Limited in the past 20 years and to service JioMusic with music over-the-top platform
infer major financial decision taking from their Saavn with RIL acquiring a 75-80 % stake in the
key success stories. entity that was merged. The company said that the
2. The paper analyses the performance of major entity combined is valued over $1 billion, with
subsidiaries of RIL before and after their JioMusic‘s implied valuation at $670 Million and
acquisition. This enables us in developing a Saavn with a valuation of $330 Million.
better understanding of how RIL converts its
acquisitions into successful businesses. Radsys (5G Architecture): RIL acquired open
telecom solution provider Radisys, in June last year
Relevance for $74 million (Rs. 511 crores). That deal was
Reliance Industries is the top performing majorly focused towards enhancing Reliance Jio's
company in India which can be understood by the presence in the areas of 5G, Internet of Things
fact that RIL reported a consolidated turnover of (IoT), and open-source architecture adoption.
over 6.5 trillion Indian rupees in fiscal year 2020.
This was a 5.4 percent growth compared to the Eros (TV content): RIL acquired 5% of stake in
previous fiscal year. The conglomerate giant made film entertainment company Eros International for
most of its revenues from its refining, $48.75 million, as video content becomes a key
petrochemicals and retail businesses. driver to drive data consumption for its telecom
Therefore, it becomes necessary to study venture Reliance Jio.
about such a company which is reviewed as widely
as the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, DEN Cables and HathwayNetworks: Reliance
Netflix, Google) companies because of its Jio bought a majority stake in Den Networks and
diversification in product range and product line. Hathway Cable and Datacom in October, 2018. Jio
Also, studying about RIL teaches about making acquired a 66 % stake in Den Networks with a
smart financial decisions which is useful for many primary investment of Rs. 2,045 crores and a 51.3
businesses whether large or small, and even on a % stake in Hathway Cable and Datacom with an
personal level too. initial investment of Rs. 2,940 crores.

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030910661071 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 1067
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 9 Sep 2021, pp: 1066-1071www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

1. Jio platforms limited:

Haptik (customer engagement): On April 3, A technological company that is a majority owned
2019, RIL announced that Reliance Jio Digital subsidiary of RIL. This new subsidiary holds all the
Services Limited has acquired artificial intelligence digital business assets including Reliance Jio
firm Haptik for Rs 700 crore, with Rs 230 crore as Infocomm Ltd, which in turn holds the Jio
the consideration for the initial business transfer connectivity business - Mobile, broadband and
which could compete against Google Assistant and enterprise and also the other digital assets.
Amazon's Alexa. Thus, Reliance will hold about
87% of the business with the rest being held by 2. Reliance Retail:
Haptik founders and employees through stock Is the retail business wing of Reliance industries. It
option grants. Reliance said that the investment is is the largest retailer in India. Many brands like
to focus on the enhancement and expansion of the Reliance fresh, Reliance market etc. come under
platform, with an addressable market opportunity this brand.
of over 1 billion users in India.
3. Reliance Life sciences:
Reverie (language processing): In April 2019, It mostly specializes in manufacturing, branding,
RIL acquired Reverie with majority stake for Rs and marketing Reliance Industries' products in bio-
190 crores ($27.3 Mn) and will invest Rs 77 crores pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, clinical research
(almost $10 million) by March 2021. As part of the services etc.
acquisition, Reliance will hold 83.3 % equity
capital in Reverie on a fully diluted basis, with the 4. Reliance Institute of Life Sciences (RILS):
total investment of Rs 267 crore likely to be It is an institution that offers higher education in
completed by March 2021. fields of life sciences and related technologies.

Fynd (online shopping): RIL acquired a majority 5. Reliance Logistics:

stake in Shopsense Retail Technologies Pvt.Ltd. It is an asset-based company that offers logistics
which runs fashion portal Fynd for Rs 295.25 crore services like transportation, warehousing to
($41.9 million). RIL also has an option to further Reliance group companies and outsiders.
invest Rs 100 crore in Shopsense Retail
Technologies, which runs Fynd, by December 6. Reliance clinical Research services (RCRS):
2021. The investment in total will translate into an A subsidiary of Reliance Life sciences that
87.6% stake in Fynd. specializes in clinical research service industries.

Tesseract (AR/VR): In August, 2019, Reliance 7. Reliance Solar:

acquired a stake of 80-85% in Tesseract post the Established by reliance to produce and retail solar
deal that would be valued between INR 150 Crore energy systems mostly in rural areas. Their
and INR 500 Crore, the source added. Reliance products include solar lanterns, home lighting
also announced its mixed reality (MR) platform systems etc.
Holoboard that combines augmented reality and
virtual reality. Holoboard would be the first made- 8. Relicord:
in-India AR headset and works with smartphones. A cord blood banking service established in 2002
Interestingly, the device is developed by Tesseract. owned by Reliance life sciences.

Grab (logistics): In February 2019, RIL‘s wholly- 9. Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited:
owned subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments A broadband service provider that gained 4G
and Holdings Limited (RIIHL) will acquire equity Licenses for operating across India.
shares of Grab A Grub Services Private Limited
(Grab) in a cash deal worth $14.9 Million or Rs. 10. Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited
106 Crore. At a later stage, the company will also (RIIL):
invest up to $5.63 Million (INR 40 Crore) to An associate company of RIL that mainly engaged
complete the acquisition deal by March 2021. RIL in the business of setting up and operating the
will control 83% equity of Grab on a fully diluted industrial infrastructure. RIIL also does related
basis with this investment. activities like leasing and providing services which
are connected to computer software and data
● Reliance and its subsidiaries (major processing.
associate companies)

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030910661071 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 1068
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 9 Sep 2021, pp: 1066-1071www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

11. Reliance LYF: Using this strategy, Reliance reaped the

It is a 4G enabled VoLTE (Voice over long-term benefits. By investing in start-ups and firms in the
evolution) device brand from Reliance Retail. majority of sectors, and slowly gaining control and
increasing its share to gain control on the former,
12. Network 18: Reliance has put down its roots in each and every
It is a mass media company that operates two joint place. As the company‘s name suggests, Reliance
ventures namely Viacom18 and History TV 18. It has in its literal sense, made us reliant on its
has also acquired the ETV network and from then various businesses.
renamed its channels under the Colors TV brand.
Major market consolidation and acquisition
13. Reliance Eros Productions LLP: strategies by RIL
It is a Joint venture with Eros international to Acquisition of Kishore Biyani‘s Future group
produce the film content in India. When RIL announced the acquisition of
the retail & wholesale business, and the logistics &
III. DATA ANALYSIS AND warehousing business from Future Group in a mega
INTERPRETATION transaction for Rs 24,713 crore, its share price
Reliance Industries Limited has expanded their jumped 2.6% to Rs 2172 per share and Future
business in each and every sector. Group‘s share went 20% to Rs 162.3. Future
In the Education sector, Embibe, a Enterprises will subsequently sell by way of a
Reliance Industries-backed educational technology slump sale the retail and wholesale business such
firm acquired a 90.5% stake for rs 71.64 crore in e- as Big Bazaar, fbb, Foodhall, Easyday, Nilgiris,
learning products and service provider Funtoot, and Central and Brand Factory to Reliance Retail and
plans to invest rs 10 crore more by December 2021, Fashion Lifestyle Limited.
following which the shareholding will increase to This acquisition is negative for their
100%. In February 2020, Embibe acquired the rival competitor Avenue Supermarts (DMart), as among
platform OnlineTyari. the three main players in the grocery market,
Avenue and Reliance were having a tight
In the Entertainment sector, Reliance competition. The major takeaway was that the
acquired Balaji Telefilms and Eros International. It weak competitor being acquired by a stronger one
increased its share from 50% to 51% in Viacom18 was negative for Avenue which became a distant
and entered into a strategic merger with Saavn. All No. 2 in a largely two-player market. This move
the actions taken by Reliance in the entertainment highlights the importance of acquiring a weaker
sector provided benefits to its subsidiary Jio competitor to fight against the major rival even if
Platform Limited. the former one has been incurring losses for quite
some time. The business deal should be seen with
In the Telecommunications sector, it confidence and in a longer span of time instead of
acquired telecom solutions provider Radisys Corp. only seeing the current financial statements of the
This acquisition accelerated Reliance Jio‘s company.
technology leadership and global innovation in
areas of Internet of things, 5G and open-source Pradeep Dhadha‘sNetmeds acquisition by RIL
architecture adoption through its telecom arm, Reliance Retail‘s acquisition of a majority
Reliance Jio Infocomm. stake in digital pharma marketplace Netmeds
In another swift move, RIL acquired formerly known as Vitalic Health Private Limited,
majority interest in Hathway Cable & Datacom, for ₹620 crore in cash is significant for a few
and DEN Cables, India‘s two largest cable TV and reasons. With this acquisition, the Mukesh
broadband companies. With this acquisition, Jio Ambani-led company has got the 100% equity
got control of almost 27,000 local cable operators ownership of Netmeds subsidiaries — Tresara
of the two multi-system operators. Health Pvt Ltd, Netmeds Marketplace Ltd and
Corporate Restructuring leads to Dadha Pharma Distribution Private Limited.
shareholder wealth maximization in quest of 1. Reliance has acquired 100% equity ownership
growth in terms of synergy, economies of scale, of all Netmeds‘ subsidiaries.
enhanced financial and marketing benefits, 2. All these subsidiaries have recorded losses in
diversification and concentrated earnings the last three financial years.
instability, superior inventory organization, boost 3. Amazon recently launched its epharmacy
in domestic market share and also to attain rapidly venture named Amazon Pharmacy looking at
increasing global markets. strong growth.

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030910661071 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 1069
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 9 Sep 2021, pp: 1066-1071www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

The addition of Netmeds enhances Services Private Limited (Grab) in a cash deal
Reliance Retail‘s ability to provide good quality worth $14.9 Mn or Rs. 106 Cr.
and affordable health care products and services, The investment will support Reliance
and also broadens its digital commerce proposition Group‘s digital commerce initiatives and
to include most daily essential needs of consumers. strengthen its logistics services, catering to both
This gives RIL a direct face off with Amazon in the B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (Business-to-
epharmacy sector, and as of now RIL is trying to consumer) segments. The deal would help the
make its base in the Indian ecommerce sector. company boost its e-commerce model to take on its
Therefore, these varied acquisitions will help in rival Amazon India and Flipkart in the country.
strengthening its position in the coming years. 4. Haptik
Again, RIL has acquired a company which On April 3, 2019, Reliance Jio Digital
has been running into losses yet they see the Services Limited acquired artificial intelligence
potential in the epharmacy sector due to the (AI) firm Haptik for Rs 700 crore, with Rs 230
unprecedented Covid-19 times where online crore as the consideration for the initial business
delivery of every commodity is becoming a regular transfer that could compete against Google
thing to do. It shows how RIL is truly foresighted Assistant and Amazon's Alexa.
and ready to venture into unknown territories even With this Reliance Jio is looking to
if those companies have been reporting losses. leverage Haptik‘s capabilities across various
Other significant acquisitions devices and touchpoints in the consumer‘s journey.
Within 2 years, Reliance acquired Reliance said that the investment is to focus on the
companies like Balaji Telefilms (TV content), enhancement and expansion of the platform, with a
EdCast (learning enabler), Embibe (edtech market opportunity of over 1 Bn users in India.
content), Saavn (music content), Radsys (5G 5. Saavn
architecture), Eros (TV content), Hathway On March 23, 2018, RIL announced the merger of
(broadband), DEN (cable), Haptik (customer its digital music service JioMusic with music over-
engagement), Reverie (language processing), Fynd the-top platform Saavn with RIL acquiring a 75-80
(online shopping), Tesseract (AR/VR) and Grab % stake in the merged entity.
(logistics). The companies acquired by Reliance, RIL stated that the integrated business will be
are working on various technologies; be it artificial developed into a media platform of the future with
intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), global reach, cross-border original content, an
blockchain, online multiplayer gaming, multi-party independent artist marketplace, consolidated data
videoconferencing, augmented reality (AR), virtual and one of the largest mobile advertising mediums
reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR). in India.
1. Embibe 6. Hamleys
In April 2018, Reliance Industries had Reliance Industries completed the acquisition of
invested $180 million in the edtechstartupEmbibe British toy retailer Hamleys for about Rs 620 crore
over a period of three years. Embibe is an in an all-cash deal in July 2019. This acquisition
education platform that uses data analytics to will help Reliance Brands to become a dominant
deliver personalised learning outcomes for player in the global toy retail industry.
students. With Embibe‘s technology, Reliance aims 7. Balaji Telefilms
to connect over 1.9 Mn schools and 58,000 RIL also invested in the entertainment
universities across India. industry by acquiring a 25% stake in film and
2. Fynd television production house Balaji Telefilms Ltd
RIL acquired a majority stake in aka ALTBalaji in a deal worth Rs413.28 crore. The
Shopsense Retail Technologies Pvt.Ltd which runs stake purchase will give Reliance Jio Infocomm
fashion portal Fynd for Rs 295.25 crore ($41.9 Ltd. access to content generated by Balaji
million). The investment would enable the group‘s Telefilms.
digital and new commerce initiatives. Reliance has These acquisitions will help RIL in
been strengthening investments and acquisitions in creating a stronghold in the retail sector mainly
the tech and Internet space as it prepares to launch because a few years back, prior to JIO‘s launch
services like e-commerce with the help of its huge Reliance was seen as a B2B sector mainly because
reach through Reliance Jio Infocomm. of its functioning in the upper sectors of the market
3. Grab rather than interacting at the ground level with
RIL‘s wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance consumers directly. With the strategic and historic
Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited launch of Jio, RIL was able to improve its image in
(RIIHL) acquired equity shares of Grab A Grub the consumer‘s mindset and garner a spirit of

DOI: 10.35629/5252-030910661071 Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 1070
 International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM)
Volume 3, Issue 9 Sep 2021, pp: 1066-1071www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252

confidence. Currently, Facebook owns a 9% stake [3]. Mazumdar, S. (2017). From ―Outsider‖ to
in RIL and are looking forward to entering the Insider: The Case of Reliance. South Asia
Indian e commerce sector on a grand scale. The Multidisciplinary Academic Journal.
acquisitions made by RIL in the recent years will https://doi.org/10.4000/samaj.4278
form a strong base for the company in competing [4]. Reuters Agency. (2020, June 12). Netflix in
with e-commerce rivals Flipkart and Amazon. This talks to source local Indian content from
shows how RIL had envisioned their ten-year plan Reliance affiliate Viacom18: Sources. The
and broke it down step by step. It highlights the Economic Times.
powerful foresight of Reliance‘s management. [5]. Roy, S. K., &Mutum, D. S. (2017). Services
Marketing Cases in Emerging Markets (B.
Limitation of our research Nguyen, Ed.). Springler. DOI 10.1007/978-
1. Due to the constraint of time, the quality and 3-319-32970-3
quantity of research is low, making the
research repetitive.
2. Because of the ongoing pandemic, no sources
of primary data were available for the research.
Hence, the research is based solely on
secondary data.
3. Reliance Companies started in 1973, but the
information was only available for the past 20
years. For the time period before that, very less
or nil information could be found.

IV. CONCLUSION
In the coming future, Reliance Jio and
other Reliance Industries' subsidiaries are likely to
continue their acquisition trend to retain their
leadership in the market. But the results of the
acquisitions are yet to be majorly seen from the
user perspective. While the results are yet to be
seen, one fact is clear that Mukesh Ambani‘s
Reliance is on a spree to capture it‘s position in the
top 10 companies in the world. With a large
potential customer base as in India which doesn‘t
yet have the exposure to the finest offerings by
other companies; RIL is looking forward to tap all
the potential. It keeps the consumers aware about
the latest developments and how it is going to
benefit the consumers.

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