New Delhi: Brokerage house Jefferies expects Reliance Jio to be spun off or listed within the next four to five years, on the lines of Reliance Retail, even as the group creates a new energy business and repositions the telecom subsidiary as a technology company.
“Chairman will continue in his role for five years and mentor the next generation to play larger role in the years to come… Chairman will create the new energy business, and we expect him to likely spin off/IPO Jio and Retail during his current tenure,” Jefferies Equities Research said in a note on the recent announcements made by Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries in its annual general meeting on Monday.
Some brokerage houses critiqued the absence of a roadmap for listing of Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail entities.
“Although the defined timelines for the green-energy initiatives will be viewed positively, silence on the long-awaited Jio/Retail demerger left a void,” said analysts at IIFL Securities. “No indication on any timelines for the demerger of the telecom and retail businesses, which was keenly awaited; as such, meaningful immediate triggers seem to be missing,” they added.
RIL announced a succession plan with the induction of the next generation into the RIL Board, while on Jio, it announced the launch of its fixed wireless access service called Jio Air Fiber from September 19 with the aim to reach 200 million paying homes, even as it pegged Jio Platforms as the provider of innovative platforms to business worldwide and as a developer of AI models for India.
“Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea will face risk from higher mobile number portability or MNP port-outs or any disruptive JioAirfiber pricing,” said analysts at Bank of America Securities in a note. To be sure, rival No 2 carrier Airtel has also launched its fixed wireless access service called Airtel Xstream AirFiber earlier this month in Mumbai and Delhi with plans starting from ₹799 a month, besides a one-time outgo of ₹2500.
At its AGM, Ambani also said that Jio was on track to scale up 5G to cover the entire country by December and expand its 5G coverage from 690,000 cells in June, to nearly 1 million cells by the year end. Also, the No 1 carrier Jio had 450 million customers and was leading the 5G adoption with over 50 million 5G subscribers. Jio also aimed to get over 250 million 2G customers onto 4G using the recently launched JioBharat phone priced at ₹999.
“We expect lower capex in Jio in FY25E with 5G network capex largely behind,” analysts at Jefferies said in the note quoted earlier, noting that Jio’s capex spends on building 5G may peak as no new capex was announced by the management. The trend is anticipated to be similar for the No 2 carrier Airtel as well as has advanced its capex in FY24 to build out its 5G networks, leading to possibility of lower capex for the following years. Between the two carriers, over 200,000 5G base stations have been set up covering all states of the country.
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Updated: 30 Aug 2023, 09:17 AM IST
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