This day 12th July 2018 Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) becomes second most valued listed company in terms of market capitalization when it regained US $ 100 billion mark. RIL had a top-line of US $ 64 billion last year with bottom-line of US $ 5.4 billion dollars, the highest profit making company listed on the bourses. RIL is engaged in the production/distribution of Textiles, Petroleum, Natural Gas, Petrochemicals, Retail, Telecommunications and Media products/services. It employs around 2 lakh manpower across the Conglomerate. Mukesh Ambani is the present Chairman & MD of the Company.
Background: The Company was founded by Dhirubai Ambani and Champaklal Damani in 1960s as Reliance Commercial Corporation. In 1966, Damani ended the partnership, and Dhirubhai incorporated Reliance Textiles Industries Pvt Ltd for the polyester business, which later went on to become popular Vimal brand. This company came out with public issue in 1977, which was oversubscribed 7 times. The name of the company Reliance Textiles Industries Ltd was changed to Reliance Industries Ltd in 1985. Thereafter, RIL diversified into petrochemicals, natural gas, telecommunications, Retail and Media over a period of time.
The Company’s Equity shares are listed on NSE and BSE whereas Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) are listed on Luxemburg Stock Exchange. Post demise of Dhirubhai Ambani, RIL and its subsidies business was de-merged in 2005-06 into equal proportion with RIL & IPCL retained by Mukesh Ambani whereas Anil Ambani got telecom, power, entertainment and financial services businesses besides a chunk of cash as a part of settlement.
The Company has a track record of paying consistent dividends for more than 2 decade. It has also rewarded shareholders with 4 liberal bonus issues in 1983, 1997, 2009 and 2017. The petrochemical refinery set up at Jamnagar is the largest refinery in the world. The Company was darling of the share markets for almost 2 decades with highest weight in BSE Sensex. It was the first Indian listed company to attain US $ 100 billion market capitalization in October 2007 when exchange rate was Rs 39.5. It took almost 11 years to reclaim US $ 100 billion mark when exchange rate moved up to Rs 68.6 per dollar.
Keep watching this space for latest updates!
Comments