Reliance Becomes World's No. 2 Energy Company After Saudi Aramco
Reliance Industries, controlled by Asia's richest man, toppled ExxonMobil Corporation to become the world's largest energy company after Saudi Aramco, as investors piled into the conglomerate lured by the Indian firm's digital and retail forays.
Reliance, which manages the biggest refinery complex, gained 4.3 per cent in Mumbai on Friday adding $8 billion to take its market value to $189 billion, while Exxon Mobil erased about $1 billion. Reliance's shares have jumped 43 per cent this year compared with a 39 per cent drop in Exxon's shares as refiners across the globe struggled with a plunge in fuel demand. Aramco with a market capitalization of $1.76 trillion is the world's biggest energy company.
While the energy business accounted for about 80 per cent of Reliance's revenue in the year ended March 31, Chairman Mukesh Ambani's plan to expand the company's digital and retail arms has helped him attract $20 billion into the Jio Platforms unit. That in turn helped add $22.3 billion to Ambani's wealth this year, propelling him to the fifth spot in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Ambani's deal-making has lured investments from Google to Facebook Inc. into his digital platform in recent months. The 63-year-old tycoon has identified technology and retail as future growth areas in a pivot away from the energy businesses he inherited from his father who died in 2002.
Meanwhile, large scale global oil demand destruction - some 30 million barrels a day, or a third of regular usage, in April - sent energy markets into a second-quarter tailspin, from which they've only recently started to recover. Worst-in-a-generation oil prices combined with OPEC production cuts, collapsing refining margins and millions of barrels of unsold crude have hurt big oil companies including Exxon and Chevron Corporation.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
TMC will be voted back to power in Bengal: Tejashwi Yadav
Patna (PTI): Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, on Tuesday exuded confidence that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC will again be voted to power in West Bengal.
Yadav returned to Patna after a four-day poll campaign in West Bengal.
“The atmosphere there is euphoric and people want to bring Didi (Mamata Banerjee) back to power. I am fully confident that the TMC will win the election,” he told reporters here.
He said that a large number of people from Bihar living in West Bengal share a lot of love and respect for Mamata Banerjee.
Responding to BJP’s allegations that the TMC had “ruined” West Bengal during its tenure, the RJD leader said the “entire country has been ruined under the Narendra Modi-led government”.
“I want to ask one question to Modi ji – you have been prime minister for more than 11 years, tell me one thing you have done for Bengal,” Yadav said.
The first phase of elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly was held on April 23, while the second phase will take place on April 29. Votes will be counted on May 4.
