BackRIL plans over Rs1 trillion investment: report
RIL plans over Rs1 trillion investment: report
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New Delhi: Reliance Industries may invest more than Rs1,00,000 crore in various businesses in next few years, but concerns still remain about use of cash flow by the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate, a report has said.
The mega investment plan has been outlined in an equity research report by global investment banking major Morgan Stanley, which incidentally happens to be financial advisor in international energy giant BP’s proposed partnership with RIL.
The investments would be mostly in E&P (exploration and production), petrochemicals and shale gas by RIL, which as per Morgan Stanley, has already announced investments totaling $7.2 billion (over Rs30,000 crore) since January 2010.
The large investment pipeline notwithstanding, Morgan Stanley said that it was concerned over limited clarity on the use of cash flow by RIL.
Noting that cash flows being bigger than capex (capital expenditure) size was leading to an uncertainty, Morgan Stanley said that its concerns mainly stem from three issues -- Lack of clarity of deploying cash flows, E&P remaining a dampener and lower petrochemical netbacks.
The netback is calculated by deducting from the total revenue the entire costs incurred in taking the product to the market. These costs include those associated with import, transportation, production, refining and royalty etc.
Morgan Stanley detailed RIL’s investment plans and concerns over the mismatch with cash-flows, along with a disclaimer that it was an advisor to BP on RIL deal.
“Morgan Stanley is acting as financial advisor to BP in relation to the proposed partnership with RIL as announced on 21 February 2011. BP has agreed to pay fees to Morgan Stanley for its financial services," it said in the report.
RIL plans to spend $10-12 billion (Rs45,000-54,000 crore) in petrochemicals business over 5 years and a similar amount in its E&P business, the report said.
The report dated 8 July further said that RIL was estimated to invest a total of close to $11 billion (about Rs50,000 crore) over the life of its three shale gas joint ventures in the US, including the acquisition costs.
In the five years alone, RIL was estimated to invest $4-6 billion (Rs18,000-27,000 crore) in its three investments in shale gas, it added.
Earlier at an investor conference in February, RIL had projected investment totalling $25-30 billion (Rs1,10,000-1,35,000 crore) for the next five years in its various businesses, including energy and telecom sectors.
RIL also said in an investor presentation in April that it would pursue both organic and inorganic growth opportunities and disclosed an “investment programme of over $10 billion to cater to domestic market" in petrochemicals.
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