TIME TO EXUDE CONFIDENCE
But Ambani may be taking a calculated risk on his ability to manage politics. The priority is to sustain the 43 per cent rally in his flagship Reliance Industries’ shares in the past eight months. That calls for some boldness and excitement, to gain an advantage against his main rival.
Adani, 62, has put last year’s debilitating short-seller attack behind him. He’s unlikely to remain confined to infrastructure like ports, airports, data centres and building materials. Adani wants one in three Indians to be on his fledgling super-app by the end of the decade. How will he ever acquire them without competing with Ambani in a large consumer-facing industry like telecom or payments?
It is this moat that Ambani must protect. After agreeing to merge his media operations with Walt Disney’s TV franchise in India, he has a lock on Bollywood and cricket, the two offerings that unfailingly grab eyeballs in the world’s most-populous nation.
A new consumer finance and payments unit – spun off from the mothership last year – is hiring key executives. A public float for the digital platform perhaps as early as next year, followed by one for India’s number one retail chain, will leave Ambani in an unassailable position. A secure empire can be safely entrusted to the next generation.
Now is not the time to lie low, but to exude confidence.
Morgan Stanley’s Michael Grimes, who helped Reliance raise more than US$20 billion from Zuckerberg and other investors during the pandemic, was on the guest list. He should be a happy tech banker. His firm’s analysts expect the conglomerate to add US$100 billion to its US$260 billion market value.
And why not? More than 1 billion Indians are looking for an escape from staggering youth unemployment, lacklustre wages, and stubbornly high inflation. As long as they pay for the data, Ambani will deliver all the distraction they need on their smartphones and broadband TV – and even throw in snippets of a US$600 million wedding into the package.
