Mukesh Ambani's Reliance becomes net debt-free ahead of March 2021 target

“Today I am both delighted and humbled to announce that we have fulfilled our promise to the shareholders by making Reliance net debt-free much before our original schedule of 31st March 2021,” he said.

Starting with Facebook Inc on April 22, Reliance has sold almost 25 percent of the equity in Jio Platforms - the maximum reports suggest the company intends to dilute to financial investors. With the Saudi investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 115,693.95 crore from some of the leading global investment powerhouses at a time when the world is deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in a recession kind of environment for the global economy.

Over the past two months, Ambani's oil-to-telecom conglomerate has announced the sale of about $14 billion of assets, completed a Rs 53,124 crore rights issue and slowed the run rate of new investment by a quarter.

The group racked up net debt of Rs 1.6 trillion rupees as of March as it spent billions to build a wireless network, and Ambani had promised shareholders in August that he would slash that to zero within 18 months. Shares of Reliance rose as much as 1.7 per cent in Mumbai to a record on Friday, giving it a market value of $143 billion, Bloomberg News reported.

"Therefore, on the proud occasion of becoming a net debt-free company, I wish to assure them that Reliance in its Golden Decade will set even more ambitious growth goals," said Ambani.