Bullish on adding further financial muscle to energy-to-retail conglomerate led by him,Mukesh Ambani today said Reliance Industries will partner leading world corporates for entering new businesses in the country. Although he was silent on specific details for the future course of action of RIL's entry into financial services and telecom businesses,Ambani said that a partnership-led transformation would be one of the top agenda going forward. ". transformation is at the top of the Reliance agenda for a renewed organisation that will deliver continuous growth," Ambani said. Addressing shareholders at the company's 37th AGM here,Ambani listed among the top agenda "a partnership transformation that will enable Reliance to partner with world leaders to enter new business domains in India". He also promised "a business transformation that will fundamentally strengthen the constitution and character of the organisation". Ambani said Reliance was endowed with a strong balance sheet and it was reinforcing its constitution with the business transformation initiative. "Reliance is forging new partnerships to pursue new growth opportunities," he said,while adding that the group was determined to improve its ranking among global businesses. Ambani went on to talk about a talent transformation to help it attract best talent in the country and abroad,an innovation-led technology transformation to explore new businesses and a market-transformation to help Reliance explore new consumer markets. The RIL Chairman and MD said Reliance has transformed many sectors and redefined the way industries operate and has always been able to foresee changes in business trends. Ambani said the focused efforts would be undertaken to transform Reliance into a "renewed and refreshed organisation prepared for opportunities and challenges of a 21st century world". He said the year 2010 presented the company with opportunities in market growth and for investments across each of its businesses. At the same time,RIL also had to confront challenges arising out of high commodity and input prices and inflationary trends,he added. Still,RIL added significantly to its financial strength and its enterprise value has grown to over USD 75 billion,Ambani said. Ambani said RIL has become the first private sector company to have a turnover in excess of Rs 250,000 crore and it posted its highest ever net profit of Rs 20,286 crore in FY11. "With a cash balance of Rs 42,393 crore,out company is in a very strong position financially. Reliance will be completely debt free,net of cash balances within this year. "All these reflect a robust financial position and a sound balance sheet. Reliance envisages the continued pursuit of new opportunities for growth and profitability on the strength of this solid financial position," he said. Ambani was,however,silent on any blueprint for the group's foray into financial services businesses and any specific details about telecom business rollout. Still,he termed 'broadband wireless' as a new Reliance initiative with transformational potential. Ambani said telecom services have fundamentally changed the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians over the past decade and Reliance was "the pioneer" in defining this change. Terming broadband and broadband-enabled digital services as the next big leap,Ambani said Reliance plans to create end-to-end solutions that address the complete digital value chain,including rich content,applications and services. "Such digital services would be in the domains of education,healthcare,entertainment,financial services and government-citizen interfaces," he said,adding that Reliance was currently in the process of conceptualising its products and services.
