Saudi Aramco Deal has Not Progressed as per Earlier Timeline, Says Mukesh Ambani at RIL AGM

Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani on Wednesday said that the company will spin off its oil-to-chemical business into a separate subsidiary by early 2021 after necessary regulatory approvals as he announced that the proposed partnership with Saudi Aramco has not progressed according to the original timeline.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances in the energy market and the Covid-19 situation, the deal has not progressed as per the original timeline. Our equity requirements have already been met,” Ambani said at the company’s first virtual AGM. “Nevertheless, we at Reliance value our over two-decade long relationship with Saudi Aramco and are committed to a long-term partnership,” he added.

The RIL chairman said the company has been approached by global companies for strategic partnerships in its petrochemical business, and making the O2C a separate unit will help in leveraging these partnership opportunities.

“We will approach NCLT with our proposal to spin off our O2C business into a separate subsidiary to facilitate this partnership opportunity. We expect to complete this process by early 2021,” he said.

Ambani said the potential partnerships will help Reliance build a competitive manufacturing capacity at our existing sites to serve the deficit Indian market that still depends on large-scale imports of chemicals.

“With this we will have an integrated and competitive Oil to Chemicals portfolio which is valuable to global companies as it provides access to the large and growing Indian market.”

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