Tuesday, June 27 2006 15:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Having doubled the net profit in two years to about Rs 9,500 crore, corporate giant Reliance today (June 27, 2006) announced mega retail plans with an investment of Rs 25,000 crore and new oil and gas discoveries and said it would explore cross-border acquisitions for faster growth.

Unveiling the growth plans at the Annual General Meeting, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said he would open three broad fronts -- forging new growth avenues in urban infrastructre and special economic zones; founding new economy businesses in life sciences and healthcare; and developing options for cross border acquisition in existing and new businesses.

Terming retailing as 'the next big idea', Ambani said a new company Reliance Retail, entailing equity investment of upto Rs 10,000 crore, would 'spearhead this revolution' where investment would have to expand to Rs 25,000 crore in the years to come.

Giving details of the retail initiatives, for which the Group would have to integrate with a world-class supply chain, logisitics and IT infrastructure across the country, Ambani said RIL would focus on 12 areas ranging from food and grocery to educational products, the new business would have a 'pan-India' footprint, covering 1,500 cities and towns.

Thanking the shareholders for their 'stupendous response' to the Reliance Petroleum IPO, that got an all-time record subscription of Rs 143,573 crore, he said that RIL equity holders had seen a 100 per cent return in one year after the company effected demerger (as part of settlement between Ambani brothers).

RIL scrip hogged the limelight in an otherwise lacklusture market and it was being quoted at Rs 999.75, up by Rs 18.20 during the day.

Detailing the business performance during the year gone by, Ambani said RIL's turnover stood at Rs 89,124 crore representing a 58 per cent increase over the same two-year period.

Besides retailing business, RIL is also emerging as a major global player in the field of petrochemicals. With 900,000 tonnes capacity of propylene being built by the company, Ambani said, "Reliance would emerge as the fourth largest producer of polypropylene in the world."

On the refining and marketing front, he said RIL, with the new refinery at Jamnagar under the banner of Reliance Petroleum Limited, will become the largest hub for petroleum refining in the world with a capacity to process 1.24 million barrels of crude oil per day.

"RIL has a 75 per cent stake in Reliance Petroleum, which is implementing the refinery," he said.

Reliance has also forged a strategic relationship with US based Chevron Corporation, the second largest US headquartered oil and gas company with revenues of 194 bullion dollars in 2005.

Chevron has acquired a five per cent stake in Reliance Petroleum, with an option to increase the stake to 29 percent, Ambani said, adding that the main objective of this tie-up was to optimise crude supply, product offtake and marketing from the refinery and also collaborate in other areas of the energy value chain.