RIL plans upto USD 30 bln investment in next five years

New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-ledReliance Industries is planning major investments, totallingup to USD 30 billion over next five years in its variousbusinesses, including energy and telecom sectors.

These investments of USD 25-30 billion (well over Rs1,00,000 crore) would be mainly targetted at petrochemicals,exploration and production and telecom businesses of thecorporate conglomerate.

The bullish investment outlook was disclosed by RIL at aninvestor conference hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch(BofA-ML) last week.

The company expects its five main business in the next5-10 years to be petrochemicals, refining, E&P, retail andtelecom.

As per the proposed capex (capital expenditure)investment plan, RIL would invest USD 10-12 billion inpetrochemicals, while spending another USD 10 billion onexploration and development of (oil and gas) discoveriesalready made in shale gas in India and US.

Besides, RIL would invest USD 4.5-4.7 billion (over Rs20,000 crore) in telecom over the next five years, Bank ofAmerica-Merrill Lynch (BofA-ML) said in a research note aboutits investor conference.

RIL has already spent USD 2.8 billion on acquiring 4Glicenses and spectrum, which it got last year throughacquisition of Infotel Broadband Services.

Infotel was the only entity to get pan-India license inthe auction of Broadband Wireless Access spectrum conducted bythe government last year.

RIL is currently in the process of finalising arrangementwith leading global technology players, service providers,infrastructure providers, application developers, devicemanufacturers and others for its 4G (fourth-generation)telecom service offerings.

BofA-ML also said that RIL has indicated a surge in itsEBTDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, andamortisation) to USD 15 billion by FY15, from about USD 6.4billion in the last fiscal ended March 2010.

Last month, RIL reported a 28.14 per cent rise in itsthird-quarter net profit at Rs 5,136 crore, helped by robustperformance in its refining and petrochemicals businesses.

The turnover rose by about six per cent to Rs 62,399crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, from Rs 58,848crore in the year-ago period.

Commenting on the results, RIL chief Mukesh Ambani hadsaid: "Reliance had another record quarter as both refiningand petrochemical margins continued to improve and certainproducts recorded historic levels."

"Robust demand growth in home markets and highlycompetitive assets enabled Reliance to have industry leadingoperating rates and margins," he added.