Citi Research says view on Reliance Industries positive

With core refining business continuing to do well and the commissioning soon of some major projects in the petrochemicals business, the positive views on Reliance Industries remain unchanged, Citi Research has said in a report.

"In addition, Reliance Industries continues to remain material underweight relative to benchmarks for most investor classes -- foreign institutional investors, domestic mutual funds and emerging market funds," the report said. High cash on the balance sheet also raises expectations.

Regarding the launch of Jio 4G services, the report said the delay was on account of the company leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it does not over-promise and under-deliver on a business in which the capital expenditure will top $22 billion.

"It now plans to fully integrate Reliance Communication's 800 MHz spectrum before launch -- making Jio the only player with sub-1GHz pan-India LTE (long-term evolution) spectrum). It plans to increase coverage to 90 percent (from 70 percent) before launch," the report added.

In the process, however, the report said the company could be testing the patience of investors and eroding its first mover advantage.

The report said the reward potential from the company remained favourable and any weakness in the coming weeks or months should be seen as a a buying opportunity from a 12-month point of view. The converse would be on the success of Jio and ramp-up of core projects.

--IANS

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