BackRIL weighs possible overseas investments
RIL weighs possible overseas investments
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Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said it’s considering overseas investments as the economic environment of the past year has resulted in interesting opportunities.
The firm is reviewing global opportunities for growth in its core business, where an investment by a strategic operator of industrial assets can add substantial value, RIL said in an statement on Monday. The statement was in response to a report by The Economic Times that it would buy as much as $6 billion (around Rs28,000 crore) of assets from Rotterdam-based petrochemical firm, LyondellBasell Industries AF.
RIL raised Rs3,190 crore by selling shares in September after saying it may buy fields overseas to hedge the risks of investing in India, where it’s fighting a natural gas supply lawsuit. Purchasing Lyondell makes little sense for RIL, which would benefit more from buying foreign oil and gas fields, analyst Neil Beveridge said. “The only rationale to buy Lyondell is really that it’s cheap," said Beveridge of Sanford C Bernstein in Hong Kong. Refining operations in general in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries are generally cheap given the lower demand for both refined products and petrochemicals.
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