RIL not contemplating banking foray: Ambani

Reliance Industries (RIL) today said it has no plans to foray into the banking sector.

"We are not contemplating banking licence in the present scheme of things," RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders while replying to a question at the company's annual general meeting here.

Shareholders were anxious to know about the future plans of the company in the financial sector.

Ambani was silent on any blueprint for the group's foray into the financial services businesses.

Earlier, RIL had indicated that it would seek partnerships with leading global players to cash in on the rapid growth of the country's financial services sector.

The group has already been approached by several global financial services companies for possible partnerships, Ambani said in his annual communication to the shareholders.

Recently, RIL had entered into an agreement to set up a joint venture with DE Shaw group. The JV will seek to "build a leading financial services business in India", the company said in its latest annual report.

RIL would capitalise on the core strength of its businesses and expertise of global investment major DE Shaw in its proposed foray into the financial services sector.

Meanwhile, RIL was expecting government approval for its deal with BP Plc in the next few weeks, Ambani said.

In February, Reliance had agreed to sell a stake in 23 of its oil and gas blocks, including some in the KG basin, to BP in a $7.2-billion deal, and is expected to benefit from BP's deepwater exploration expertise.

The partnership will synergies BP's worldwide deep-water expertise with Reliance's project execution capabilities and efforts in India's deepwater basins to form an unparallelled combination, he said.

Reliance's KG D6 block has already supplied about 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and about 14 million barrels of crude oil to various customers in the country since the beginning of production.

After the government's approval for the BP-Reliance partnership, the KG D6 reservoirs will be jointly assessed to address the technical issues in ramping up production, Ambani added.

Reliance is also actively working on development of the coal bed methane blocks in Sohagpur, Madhya Pradesh. As part of the strategic partnership, Reliance and BP are also forming a 50:50 joint venture to source and market natural gas across India.

Ambani also said the company would develop its broadband business plans over three to five years.

Last year, RIL announced entry into the telecom business with a $1 billion acquisition of Infotel Broadband, the only company to win nationwide licence for broadband wireless (BWA) spectrum in a government auction.

Reliance plans to create end-to-end solutions that address the complete digital value chain, including rich content, applications and services.

RIL shareholders were, however, disappointed as Ambani did not make any comments on future plans and there was also no clarity on KG-D6 gas output or cash utilisation, shareholders said.