RELIANCE

July 29 (Reuters) -

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES PROPOSING TO SELL JUST 5% OF JIO TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNIT IN A POTENTIAL LISTING THAT MAY RAISE MORE THAN $6 BILLION- BLOOMBERG NEWS

Source text: https://tinyurl.com/3cwm55wd

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];))

MOSCOW/NEW DELHI, July 28 (Reuters) - Prices for Russia's flagship Urals crude oil for delivery to Indian ports in late August/early September firmed further, while discounts to Brent were the narrowest since 2022 amid firm demand in India and Turkey and low supply of the grade, three sources said.

Spot discounts for Urals crude narrowed to between $1.50 and $1.60 per barrel to dated Brent on a delivery ex-ship (DES) basis on average for cargoes arriving in India in late August/early September, from between $1.70 and $2 per barrel to dated Brent on a DES basis about a month ago, the traders said.

That is the narrowest discount for Urals oil cargoes to dated Brent in Indian ports since the Ukraine war broke out in 2022.

Russia's daily oil exports from the ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk are set to fall to around 1.77 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, down from 1.93 million bpd in July's plan.

Narrowing discounts, lower supply of spot Russian barrels and fresh Western sanctions may push Indian refiners to look for alternative oil supplies, traders said.

On July 18, the EU approved its 18th package of sanctions against Russia, which includes sanctions on Moscow's energy sector and against Russia-backed Indian refiner Nayara Energy.

A few days later Britain imposed new sanctions on Russia's so-called "shadow fleet," targeting 135 oil tankers along with two Russian firms, shipping company Intershipping Services LLC and oil trader Litasco Middle East DMCC.

India has been the largest buyer of Russian seaborne crude after Moscow diverted its energy supply away from the European Union, which imposed a ban late in 2022.

Large volumes of Russian Urals oil are shipped to India under a deal between the country's largest private refiner, Reliance Industries RELI.NS, and Russian oil giant Rosneft ROSN.MM last year, limiting the crude offered in the spot market, traders said.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi and Reuters reporters in Moscow; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

July 23 (Reuters) -

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES HAS BEGUN SEEKING TO DIVERSIFY ITS CRUDE PURCHASES AWAY FROM RUSSIA - BLOOMBERG NEWS

Source text: [https://tinyurl.com/2rhn55m2]

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];))

** Reliance Industries RELI.NS, India's most valuable company, drops 1%, taking two-day decline to ~4%

** RELI, among the heaviest-weighted stocks, top drag on benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI, which is trading flat

** Stock posts biggest two-day decline since early April, when U.S. President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs triggered a global market sell-off

** RELI set for a fourth straight session of decline

** Decline after the Mukesh Ambani-led firm's segmental results came below analysts' estimates; stock fell as much as 3.6% on Monday

** RELI is down ~12% since hitting record high in July 2024

** Stock trims YTD gains to 16.5% vs Nifty's 6% climb

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]))

July 21 (Reuters) - Shares of Reliance Industries RELI.NS fell more than 2% on Monday after the conglomerate's energy and retail segments reported first-quarter results below analysts expectations on Friday.

Reliance was the top drag on Nifty 50 index .NSEI, which was down 0.3%.

(Reporting by Sethuraman NR; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected]; (+91 9945291420); Reuters Messaging: [email protected]))

July 18 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS said on Friday its unit, Reliance Retail, has acquired home appliance maker Kelvinator in a bid to expand into the fast-growing consumer durables market.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

(Reporting by Manvi Pant; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

(([email protected]; +918447554364;))

Updates paragraphs 1 and 2 to add regulator's approval of a fifth Jio BlackRock passive fund

July 16 (Reuters) - Jio BlackRock has received approval from India's markets regulator to launch five passive index funds, the Securities and Exchange Board of India's website showed on Wednesday.

The funds will mirror five indexes, namely, the blue-chip Nifty 50 .NSEI., Nifty Midcap 150 .NIMI150, Nifty smallcap 250 .NISM250, Nifty Next 50 .NN50 and the benchmark index tracking Indian government bonds with 8–13 years maturity .NIFGS813.

Jio BlackRock, a joint venture between billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio Financial Services JIOF.NS and BlackRock BLK.N, plans to launch nearly a dozen equity and debt funds in India by year-end, Reuters reported last week.

The asset manager is entering the country's 72.2-trillion-rupee ($844 billion) mutual funds market with a mix of active and passive offerings, aiming to leverage its digital reach to sidestep traditional distributor networks.

It has raised over $2.1 billion across three debt mutual fund schemes, attracting investments from 90 institutional investors and 67,000 retail investors so far.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

(([email protected]; 8800437922;))

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI, July 11 (Reuters) - India needs to increase its petrochemical production capacity to meet local and global demand and contain China's growing dominance of the sector, a senior Reliance Industries official said on Friday.

Petrochemical margins have shrunk across the world as China’s capacity expansion has created a surplus. For some of its refiners, up to 40%-50% of their output can be petchems, more than double typical capacity levels in India.

India's petrochemical demand for now is a tiny fraction of the global average but the nation's consumption is set to rise as the economy expands.

India's economic growth is the highest of any major economy, while China's is stagnating and its gasoline and gasoil demand have peaked, many analysts say. In India, the use of the two auto fuels is still rising, although at a slower pace as the country seeks to shift to cleaner fuels.

Vikram Sampat, senior vice-president, strategy and business development, for the polyester chain at Reliance Industries RELI.NS told an industry conference that China was taking over "the entire petrochemical industry" and India needed to take action.

"If we don't do it, China will continue to grow," he said.

Sampat said Reliance has a petrochemical intensity, or production capacity in its overall refining portfolio of 20%.

Analysts say Indian refiners will increase their focus on petrochemicals to sustain margins and growth as demand for fossil fuel transport fuels approaches its peak in the coming years.

Sampat said he expects refiners to redirect 30%–50% of the gasoline yield toward petrochemical production, if petrol demand peaks. If diesel demand peaks, the share of output going into petrochemicals could rise to as much as 50%–70%.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; editing by Barbara Lewis)

(([email protected]; https://twitter.com/_mohi_;))

** Shares of Reliance Industries RELI.NS edged lower as much as 0.7% to 1508.10 rupees

** On Wednesday, it fell 1.2% to 1,519 rupees after Reuters' report of conglomerate's telecom wing Reliance Jio RELJ.NS delaying IPO beyond 2025

** Benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI down 0.4%

** Avg rating of 32 analysts "buy"; median PT 1,565 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, stock up 24%

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru)

(([email protected];))

Adds Reliance parent share price fall, market reaction in paragraph 3

By Aditya Kalra and Scott Murdoch

NEW DELHI/SYDNEY, July 9 (Reuters) - Indian telecom and digital giant Reliance Jio Platforms, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has decided not to launch its IPO this year as planned, delaying one of the country's most anticipated stock offerings, two people familiar with the matter said.

Valued by analysts at over $100 billion, Jio wants to achieve higher revenues and a bigger subscriber base for its telecom business, and expand its other digital offerings, so that its valuation can increase further before an IPO, said the first source in describing the rationale for the delay.

Shares of its parent conglomerate Reliance Industries RELI.NS fell sharply after the Reuters report and were down 1.8% in afternoon Mumbai trade. Given its significant weighting in key indexes, Reliance's fall also dragged the broader Indian market .NSEI into negative territory.

Nearly 80% of Jio Platforms' latest annual revenue of $17.6 billion came from its telecom business -- Reliance Jio Infocomm, India's biggest player. But Ambani is also fast-expanding his other niche digital businesses focused on developing apps, connected devices and AI solutions for enterprises.

Reliance Jio is also set to lock horns with Elon Musk, who is expected to launch Starlink internet service in India in coming months. Jio, which counts Google and Meta among investors, has also partnered with Nvidia NVDA.O to develop AI infrastructure.

In 2019, Ambani said Jio will "move towards" a listing within five years. And last year, Reuters reported Reliance was targeting a 2025 Mumbai listing for Jio Platforms, aiming for it to be India's biggest ever IPO.

"Jio (IPO) is not going to happen this year, it's just not possible. The company wants the business to be more mature," said the first source.

Both the sources, who declined to be identified as the strategy is confidential, said Reliance had appointed no bankers so far to discuss a potential stock market offering.

Reliance did not respond to Reuters queries.

The telecom business, Jio Infocomm, had struggled as tariff hikes led to some churn in its subscriber base but has returned to a growth path this year. It has more than 488 million subscribers.

Indian brokerage IIFL Capital said in April it was cutting Jio's core profit estimate for 2025-26 by 3% due to "higher costs and lower flow-through from the next tariff hike assumed in late 2025". It also cut its valuation estimate from $117 billion to $111 billion, though Jefferies values it at $136 billion.

The first source declined to share the valuation that Jio had been targeting in the IPO, but said it was already "easily above $100 billion".

India's IPO market had its best-ever year in 2024, with $20.5 billion raised, second only to the U.S.

Amid trade wars and Middle East tensions, market sentiment turned jittery, but is recovering. India is the world's No. 2 IPO market with $5.86 billion raised by June this year, accounting for the 12% of total proceeds globally, LSEG data shows.

Reuters has previously reported the Reliance Retail IPO was being delayed as the company wants to address operational challenges, including less than ideal earnings per square feet of space for the retailer, which runs India's biggest grocery store network of 3,000 supermarkets.

The Reliance Retail IPO was unlikely before 2027 or 2028, the person added, without elaborating on the reasons.

In recent years, Ambani, Asia's richest man, raised $25 billion collectively for digital, telecom and retail businesses from the likes of KKR KKR.N, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, General Atlantic and Silver Lake.

"The investors are not upset (about IPO delays). They know the money is sitting in front of them," said the first source.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Scott Murdoch; Additional reporting by Chandini Monnappa; Editing by Kim Coghill)

((Email: [email protected]; X: @adityakalra;))

Rewrites with background, details of the maiden offer

July 7 (Reuters) - Jio BlackRock Asset Management said on Monday it has raised more than $2.1 billion across three cash or debt mutual fund schemes, its first offering since getting the licence in May.

Jio BlackRock is a joint venture between Jio Financial Services JIOF.NS, part of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS, and U.S.-based BlackRock BLK.N.

The three-day maiden offer attracted investments from over 90 institutional investors and from more than 67,000 retail investors, Jio BlackRock said in a statement.

($1 = 85.7140 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

(([email protected]; X: @MukherjeeHritam;))

MOSCOW/NEW DELHI, July 4 (Reuters) - Discounts for Russia's flagship Urals crude oil for delivery to Indian ports in August shrank to their narrowest levels since 2022 amid high demand and shrinking spot supply, three traders in the grade's market said on Friday.

Narrowing discounts and lower supply of spot Russian barrels will push Indian refiners to look for alternative oil like United Arab Emirates' Murban or U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) grades, traders said.

The narrowing discount shows how Moscow is managing to keep its oil sales up despite Western sanctions, while its discounted oil is getting more expensive than before, though still cheaper than alternatives.

Spot discounts for Urals crude narrowed to $1.70-2 per barrel to dated Brent on delivery ex-ship (DES) basis on average for cargoes arriving in India in August, from $2 to $2.50 per barrel to dated Brent on DES basis in July, the traders said.

That is the narrowest discount for Urals oil cargoes to dated Brent in Indian ports since the Ukraine war broke out in 2022.

Meanwhile, as the Russian oil grade is traded against Brent benchmark, its outright price has been mostly below the West's $60 per barrel price cap since April this year, allowing Western companies to provide shipping and insurance service for the barrels.

Urals oil prices are supported by high demand in India and Turkey, the two largest buyers of the grade, traders said.

Turkey's imports of Russia's Urals crude rose in June to their highest level since May 2024 on healthy refinery margins and seasonal demand for motor fuels, LSEG data showed.

Meanwhile, Urals oil loadings are set to decline in July from June amid higher refinery runs in Russia.

Russian oil supply is also set to decline in August amid a planned shutdown for maintenance of output on the Sakhalin-1 project that exports Sokol oil.

India has been the largest buyer of Russian seaborne crude after Moscow diverted its energy supply away from the European Union, which imposed a ban late in 2022.

Several Indian refiners that normally buy Russian oil on the spot market are not getting enough Urals oil for delivery in August, the sources said.

India is exploring building three new strategic oil reserves to boost its emergency stockpile and strengthen energy security.

Large volumes of Russian Urals oil are shipped to India under the deal between the country's largest private refiner, Reliance Industries RELI.NS, and Russian oil giant Rosneft ROSN.MM last year, limiting the crude offered in the spot market, traders said.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi and Reuters reporters in Moscow; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Removes a line from sixth graph to show that beauty business won't be a part of new entity

MUMBAI, July 3 (Reuters) - Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries RELI.NS said it will spin off its consumer goods unit into a new entity to allow the fast-growing business to attract investors beyond those backing its retail unit.

Reliance's consumer business includes brands such as Campa Cola, which competes with Coca-Cola KO.N and Pepsi PEP.O, and dozens of other snacks and confectionery brands that fight for shelf space with the likes of Mondelez's MDLZ.O Cadbury chocolates.

India's National Company Law Tribunal has approved the internal restructuring under which Reliance will transfer its consumer business from its retail arm into a direct subsidiary, New Reliance Consumer Products Ltd, according to an order dated June 25, which was first reported by Indian media on Thursday.

"This is a large business by itself requiring specialized and focused attention, expertise and different skill sets as compared to retail business," Reliance said in its request for approval to the tribunal, according to the order.

"This business also entails large capital investments on an on-going basis and can attract a different set of investors," it added.

Reliance Industries will hold an 83.56% stake in the entity.

Reliance's retail unit has separately been planning an IPO.

On Thursday, Reliance Retail announced a strategic minority investment in UK-based FACEGYM, a facial fitness and skincare company, without disclosing an investment amount.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Sharon Singleton)

(([email protected];))

July 2 (Reuters) - A shareholder in India's Nykaa FSNE.NS, Hong Kong-based investor Harindarpal Singh Banga and his family, plan to sell stake worth 12.84 billion rupees ($149.93 million) in the beauty products retailer through a block deal, news portal NDTV Profit reported on Wednesday.

The sale will likely be at a 4% discount to Nykaa's current market price, the report said, citing people aware of the development.

Nykaa's shares closed 2.2% higher at 211.59 rupees. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Banga, who invested in Nykaa before it went public, owned 4.97% stake in the company as of March 2025, exchange data showed. He pared some of his stake in August last year, selling 40.9 million shares via a bulk deal.

The Indian market logged $5.5 billion worth of secondary market sales by large shareholders of listed companies last month, according to LSEG data. These include Reliance Industries' RELI.NS stake sale in Asian Paints ASPN.NS and British American Tobacco's $1.5 billion stake sale in ITC ITC.NS.

($1 = 85.6420 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manvi Pant; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected]; +918447554364;))

** Reliance Industries' RELI.NS rises 1.5% to 1,523 rupees

** Nuvama reiterates "buy" rating, raises PT to street-high of 1,801 rupees from 1,708 rupees, implying a premium of about 20% from share price

** Nuvama expects sales of heterojunction technology (HJT) solar panel modules to boost FY26 profit by 6% on strong margin potential in the domestic market

** Reliance recently commissioned its first 1 GW HJT solar module line, with plans to scale up capacity to 10 GW by early 2026

** Brokerage forecasts RELI's solar unit will command a higher valuation than peers, potentially triggering a re-rating

** RELI shares are up 23.5% in 2025 so far, outperforming the Nifty 50 .NSEI, which has gained 8%

** RELI rose 3.4% last week on upbeat earnings expectations

** Average rating of 32 analysts is "buy", median PT is 1,565 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]; +91 9769003463;))

June 26 (Reuters) - Indian refiners' throughput in May rose 0.4% year-on-year to 5.47 million barrels per day (23.11 million metric tons), provisional government data showed on Thursday.

Refinery throughput in April was at 5.25 million barrels per day (21.49 million metric tons).

India's fuel demand in May rose to its highest in more than a year, while crude oil imports reached a record high of 23.32 million metric tons.

The country is the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer.

"What drives refinery runs is domestic demand and refined product net exports. Oil demand was modestly up in May versus one year ago and refined product exports lower versus last year, so I guess that is the reason for the modest change," said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS.

The share of Russian oil in India's imports in May declined marginally as refiners cut purchases from Moscow by 15.7% to 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd), tanker data from trade and industry sources showed.

India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd MRPL.NS shut its 144,000 bpd crude distillation unit in mid-May, according to a refinery source and four traders who confirmed the development in early May.

REFINERY PRODUCTION IN TERMS OF CRUDE THROUGHPUT (in 1,000 tons):

Source: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

IOC: Indian Oil Corp IOC.NS

BPCL: Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd BPCL.NS

HPCL: Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd HPCL.NS

CPCL: Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd CHPC.NS

MRPL: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd MRPL.NS

Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS

Please note that CPCL's CBR refinery is de-commissioned under shutdown due to limitation in meeting required product specifications with the existing configuration.

(Reporting by Anmol Choubey in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

(([email protected];))

Updates for markets close

By Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran

June 25 (Reuters) - Indian shares rose on Wednesday, led by heavyweight Reliance Industries on earnings optimism and as easing tensions in the Middle East following a ceasefire between Israel and Iran spurred a global risk-on rally.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI added 0.8% to 25,244.75 and the BSE Sensex .BSESN rose 0.85% to 82,755.51, their highest closing levels since early October.

Eleven of the 13 major sectors logged gains. The broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 gained 1.5% and 0.4%, respectively.

Index heavyweight HDFC Bank HDBK.NS gained 1%.

Reliance Industries RELI.NS rose about 1.1%, with multiple brokerages projecting an improvement in corporate earnings for the ongoing June quarter.

IT index .NIFTYIT climbed 1.6%, led by Infosys INFY.NS, which added 2.1%.

Global equities rallied after Iran and Israel signalled an end to the hostilities following a public scolding from U.S. President Donald Trump over ceasefire violations. The MSCI World Index .MIWD00000PUS hit a record high, and Asian and emerging market stocks excluding Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS logged gains. MKTS/GLOB

"The ceasefire, despite being a fragile one, seems to be working so far and it has only ignited aggressive bids for risk assets," said Jaykrishna Gandhi, head of business development of institutional equities at Emkay Global.

Among individual stocks, Multi Commodity Exchange MCEI.NS rose 5.4% after UBS reiterated "buy" and raised target price, citing robust volume growth.

Indian Hotels IHTL.NS gained 2.3% after JPMorgan initiated coverage at "overweight" and forecast a 16% upside in the next 12 months on strong fundamentals.

Indiamart Intermesh INMR.NS jumped about 6.6% after Nuvama raised its rating by two notches and raised its price target to a street-high 3,800 rupees from 2,100 rupees, pointing to signs of a demand revival.

Titan Company TITN.NS rose 3.7% after Macquarie reiterated "outperform" and raised target price, citing buoyant jewellery sales in the June quarter.

Bucking broader gains, Dixon Technologies DIXO.NS slipped 2.4% on concerns that key client Motorola MSI.N may divert domestic orders to rival Karbonn.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Janane Venkatraman and Vijay Kishore)

(([email protected];))

- Source link: (https://bitl.to/4ixR)

- Note: Reuters has not verified this story and does not vouch for its accuracy

(Bengaluru newsroom)

(([email protected]; +91 80 6749 1310;))

Adds details, background from paragraph 2 onwards

June 16 (Reuters) - Billionare Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries RELI.NS on Monday sold shares worth 18.76 billion rupees ($218.32 million) in Asian Paints ASPN.NS through a bulk deal, exchange data showed.

The conglomerate, through affiliate Siddhant Commercials, sold 8.5 million shares in Asian Paints to ICICI Prudential Life Mutual Fund, for 2,207 rupees apiece. The price reflects a 0.3% discount to Asian Paint's Friday's close.

Last week, Reliance sold shares worth $901 million in the paintmaker, trimming its stake to 0.9% from 4.9% as of March-end 2025.

Asian Paints, India's largest paintmaker, is currently facing a potential antitrust scrutiny, with its growth being challenged by new entrants like Aditya Birla Group's Birla Opus.

Last week, Reliance said it had a balance of 8.7 million shares in Asian Paints, while Monday's stake sale reduces the balance to roughly 200,000 shares.

($1 = 85.9290 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

(([email protected]; +918447554364;))

June 12 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES - REC SOLAR (JAPAN) CO., LTD CEASED TO BE A SUBSIDIARY UPON ITS LIQUIDATION

Source text: ID:nBSE7l57Lx

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, June 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Foreign money managers are pouring into India to cater to the rising rich. Many of them may find success easier to come by than they did in neighbouring China.

The race kicked off in earnest this week when BlackRock BLK.N won regulatory approval to launch a wealth business, within a month of securing a go-ahead for its mutual fund operations. The world’s largest asset manager led by Larry Fink is back in the country after exiting a local joint venture in 2018. This time the U.S. firm is in partnership with Jio Financial Services JIOF.NS, an upstart spun off from tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s $227 billion Reliance Industries RELI.NS.

Others present also are digging deeper to tap everyday savers. Armed with a new licence, HSBC HSBA.L will push into 20 new cities in search of wealth clients. Its rival Standard Chartered STAN.L is pivoting toward affluent clients and away from single product relationships. Meanwhile, Blackstone bought wealth services provider ASK Investment Managers in 2022, whose parent now plans to launch a mutual fund.

Underway is a dramatic shift in how Indians put money to work. Households' net financial wealth, after deducting liabilities, rose 249% to $3 trillion over the nearly 12 years to the end of March 2023, per researchers at the Reserve Bank of India. Bank deposits account for 43% of financial assets, down from 51% in March 2012.

In effect, households are moving deposits into riskier instruments. Pumped up by a high-voltage marketing campaign targeting mom-and-pop savers, the mutual fund industry’s net assets under management stood at 72 trillion rupees ($845 billion) as of May, rising 22.5% year-on-year. Mutual funds’ share of net financial savings was 8.4% at the end of March 2023, up from less than 1% a decade ago, per data from industry group Association of Mutual Funds in India and research firm Crisil Intelligence. And there’s plenty of runway for growth; the industry counts just 3% of the population as customers.

Beyond everyday savers, the number of Indian ultra-high net worth individuals will increase to 19,908, a 50% increase during the five years to 2028, property consultancy Knight Frank reckons, faster than in any other geography. There’s also rising interest from richer parts of the 35 million-strong Indian diaspora living to invest at home.

To be sure, by some measure India currently has just one twelfth of the investable wealth assets under management that China had in 2020. Ping An Asset Management alone shepherds funds nearly equivalent in value to those of the entire Indian asset management industry. Yet the smaller opportunity may be easier for Western financial firms hungry for growth to tap.

A sluggish economy, poor stock market returns, and geopolitical tensions dim the allure of China. Asset managers including Fidelity and Schroders have cut costs and scaled back expansion plans in the People’s Republic. India not only saw GDP growth of 7.4% in the March quarter, but its stock market is booming too.

Unlike in China where equities have miserably failed to reflect decades of strong economic growth, Indian stocks are better correlated to GDP. Mutual fund investors in India are largely equity-oriented; in China, 68% of flows were into fixed income instruments in 2022, per Fitch Ratings.

Of course, local competition is formidable. There are 51 mutual fund houses, and the largest by assets under management are backed by Indian banks with a foreign partner: State Bank of India’s SBI.NS joint venture with France’s Amundi AMUN.PA leads, followed by ICICI Bank ICBK.NS with Prudential PRU.L.

What’s new is the potential for digitisation to drive down high expenses. Thanks to a distributor-led model, the asset-weighted median expense ratio for equity funds, a measure of cost, was 1.78% in India, higher than 1.75% for China and 1.37% for Korea in 2022, data from Morningstar shows.

In partnering with Jio Financial, whose telecom affiliate counts 477 million subscribers, BlackRock probably sees an opportunity to scale up quickly and use technology to cut out the middleman. Only 41% of mutual funds' assets under management are sourced directly from investors, per AMFI and Crisil Intelligence, and the share is probably lower by number of accounts.

If executed well, the BlackRock-Jio duo will disrupt the status quo and eat into the business of homegrown technology-led brokers like Zerodha and the soon-to-go-public Groww, which sells one in every four “systematic-investment plans” where individuals commit a fixed amount, usually monthly, to mutual funds. Both privately-owned companies might be worth up to $7 billion each. Singapore's StashAway, backed by Hamilton Lane and others, has secured over $1 billion in assets under management through digital sourcing within just four years of its launch in 2017.

Not everyone feels the prize is within reach. Some of the new strategic partnerships emerging look more like an exit. UBS UBSG.S is acquiring 5% of Mumbai-listed $5 billion 360 One ONEW.NS and is transferring the onshore wealth business it inherited through the acquisition of Credit Suisse to the Indian group. The Swiss bank closed its own Indian wealth business roughly a decade ago.

The India opportunity also has some hard-looking longer-term limits. The real value BlackRock might bring to the table for Indian investors probably rests in deploying their money offshore. That edge is dulled by capital controls; New Delhi imposes a $250,000 limit on sending money overseas. That looks more liberal than Beijing’s long-standing limit of $50,000, but India has ramped up taxes on outbound remittances exceeding $11,700. For now, at least, there is plenty to do within India.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

Updates with new, more detailed statement from Shein

By Dhwani Pandya and Helen Reid

MUMBAI/LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - Fashion retailer Shein and partner Reliance Retail plan to rapidly expand their Indian supplier base and start international sales of India-made Shein-branded clothes within six to 12 months, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

The China-founded, Singapore-headquartered Shein has been discussing plans with the Indian retailer since before the U.S. imposed tariffs on Chinese imports that intensified the need to diversify sourcing, the people said. The aim is to raise Indian suppliers to 1,000 from 150 within a year, they said.

In a statement to Reuters, Shein said its partnership with Reliance was limited to the licensing of its brand to Reliance Retail for Indian domestic consumption only. Reliance did not respond to queries.

Shein sells low-priced apparel such as $5 dresses and $10 jeans shipped directly from 7,000 suppliers in China to customers in around 150 countries. Its biggest market is the U.S. where it is adjusting to tariffs on low-value e-commerce packages from China which could previously be imported duty free.

The retailer launched in India in 2018 but its app was banned in 2020 as part of government action against China-linked firms amid border tension with its northeastern neighbour.

It returned in February under a licensing deal with the Reliance Industries RELI.NS unit which launched SheinIndia.in selling Shein-branded clothes produced in local factories. In contrast, Shein's other websites mainly list goods from China.

Reliance, controlled by Asia's richest person, Mukesh Ambani, has contracted 150 garment manufacturers and is in discussion with 400 more, said the two people, declining to be identified due to confidentiality concerns.

The goal is 1,000 Indian factories making Shein-branded clothes within a year for both the Indian market and to service some of Shein's global websites, the people said.

Shein initially wants to list India-made clothes on its U.S. and British websites, one of the people said. Discussions have been ongoing for months and the launch time of six to 12 months could change depending on supplier numbers, the person said.

The scale of supplier expansion and export time frame is being reported for the first time.

Shein has licensed its brand for domestic use to Reliance which "is responsible for manufacturing, supply chain, sales and operations in the Indian market alone," Shein said in a statement.

In December, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal told parliament that the Shein-Reliance partnership aimed to create a network of Indian suppliers of Shein-branded clothes for sale "domestically and globally".

ON-DEMAND MANUFACTURING

Shein is a fast-fashion behemoth earning annual revenue of more than $30 billion through low prices and aggressive marketing. Most of its products are from China with some made in countries such as Turkey and Brazil.

Its expansion in India mirrors interest in the country from the likes of Walmart WMT.N and others throughout the global fashion and retail industries, particularly those looking for suppliers outside China due to the U.S.-China trade war.

The Shein India app has been downloaded 2.7 million times across Apple and Google Play stores, averaging 120% on-month growth since its launch, data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower showed.

Offerings during its first four months have reached 12,000 designs, a fraction of the 600,000 products on Shein's U.S. site. In the women's dresses category, its cheapest item was priced at 349 Indian rupees ($4) compared to $3.39 on the U.S. site as of June 9.

Shein's Indian partner Reliance, which operates the app, is working with suppliers to assess whether they can replicate Shein's global best-sellers at lower cost, the two people said.

Reliance aims to emulate Shein's on-demand manufacturing model, asking suppliers to make as few as 100 pieces per design before increasing production of those that sell well, they said.

Executives from Reliance recently visited China to understand Shein's "innovative" supply chain operations, "data driven" design processes and "disruptive" digital marketing, Manish Aziz, assistant vice president Shein India at Reliance Retail, said in a LinkedIn post in which he called Shein's scale and speed "truly incredible".

The partnership is one of dozens Reliance has with fashion brands, such as Brooks Brothers and Marks and Spencer MKS.L. The firm also runs e-commerce site Ajio and its retail network competes with Amazon AMZN.O and Walmart's Flipkart as well as value retailers such as Tata's Zudio.

Reliance plans to work with new suppliers to source fabric - especially fabric made using synthetic fibres where India lacks expertise - and import required machinery, the people said. The firm will invest in suppliers and help them grow which in turn will help the Shein-Reliance partnership go global, they said.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya in Mumbai and Helen Reid in London; Editing by Aditya Kalra, Christopher Cushing and Kate Mayberry)

(([email protected];))

Adds comment in paragraph 14 and prices in paragraph 15

By Arathy Somasekhar, Georgina McCartney and Trixie Yap

HOUSTON/SINGAPORE, June 6 (Reuters) - Over half a dozen U.S.-loaded ethane vessels, originally bound for China, have stalled around the U.S. Gulf Coast after Washington requested U.S. exporters seek licenses to ship the shale gas to the top buyer, according to trade sources and ship tracking data on Friday.

Around half of all U.S. ethane exports head to China, and the halt in flows has pushed ethane prices lower on worries of domestic oversupply and is likely to cut into profits of top ethane producers.

Energy Transfer ET.N and Enterprise Products Partners EPD.N, two of the largest ethane producers and exporters, have warned the disruptions could impact their exports. The U.S. Commerce Department has also denied some vessels emergency authorization requests to export to China.

Liberia-flagged STL Qianjiang, which loaded at Energy Transfer's Nederland terminal for China's Satellite Chemical 002648.SZ, was anchored off the coast on Friday in the Gulf, according to LSEG and Kpler ship tracking data.

Energy Transfer, which produces ethane by extracting it from natural gas and then exports it from terminals along the Gulf Coast, said it received a letter from the U.S. Commerce Department on June 3 requiring the company to apply for a license to ship ethane to China.

The company and Satellite Chemical did not reply to requests for comments on the vessel.

Three other vessels, which were set to load in early June, were anchored in the U.S. Gulf near Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, while three others hovered further south in the water after having slowed down.

Meanwhile, Liberia-flagged very large ethane carrier (VLEC) Pacific Ineos Grenadier, which loaded at Enterprise Products Partners' EPD.N terminal in Morgan's Point, Texas, and had been originally destined for China, was anchored at an Enterprise dock along the Houston Ship Channel on Friday after heading away from the Gulf Coast on Thursday.

The ship had not discharged on Friday afternoon and it was not immediately clear if it would.

The vessel, a part of British petrochemical firm Ineos' fleet, has been used exclusively for transit between the United States and China since August 2023, according to Kpler data.

Enterprise Products Partners EPD.N received the license requirement letter in late May, and on Wednesday said it received a notice from the U.S. government of its intent to deny emergency requests for three proposed export cargoes of ethane totaling around 2.2 million barrels to China.

Enterprise has 20 days to respond to the denial, it said on Wednesday. Unless otherwise notified by the government by the 45th day after receiving the notification, the denials will become final.

Enterprise and Ineos declined to comment.

The United States has no ethane import terminal, Vortexa analyst Samantha Hartke said, meaning U.S. ethane once loaded onto a ship cannot be discharged in the country.

Ethane prices at Mont Belvieu traded at around 22.75 cents per gallon on Friday, recovering from the 18.75 cents it touched on Wednesday, on optimism around talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

'NO IMMEDIATE ALTERNATIVE MARKETS'

U.S. ethane production touched a record 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration, and was expected to rise to 3.1 million bpd by next year. Most of the output growth was expected to be exported to meet international demand as domestic consumption will likely hold steady.

Exports also climbed to a record 492,000 bpd last year, of which about 227,000 bpd, or 46%, headed to China.

"These are distressed cargoes at this point. I would expect these to have been sold at significant discounts," said Uday Turaga, founder of energy research and consulting firm ADI Analytics.

"Without China, there are no immediate alternative markets for vast U.S. ethane exports, directly impacting prices and profit for major U.S. producers due to specialized trade contracts," he said.

The letters from the Bureau of Industry and Security, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, said exports of ethane pose an unacceptable risk of military end-use in China, according to both companies' filings.

Chinese petrochemical firms use ethane as a feedstock because it is a cheaper alternative than naphtha, while U.S. oil and gas producers need China to buy their natural gas liquids as domestic supply exceeds demand.

(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar and Georgina McCartney in Houston, Siyi Liu and Trixie Yap in Singapore; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Diane Craft)

(([email protected]; +1 832 610 7346; X: @ArathySom;))

Updates for morning trade

By Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran

June 5 (Reuters) - India's benchmark indexes climbed in early trade on Thursday, led by gains in pharmaceutical stocks and heavyweight Reliance Industries, while lower U.S. Treasury yields and a weaker dollar lent support.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI and the BSE Sensex .BSESN both climbed 0.5% each to 24,733.8 and 81,379.72 points, respectively, as of 10:25 a.m. IST.

Barring the state-run banks, all major sectors were in the green. The broader, more domestically focussed smallcap .NIFSMCP100 and midcap .NIFMDCP100 stocks rose 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories REDY.NS jumped about 3% on collaboration with biotech company Alvotech ALVO.O to develop cancer drug Keytruda's biosimilar for global markets.

The stock pushed the pharma index .NIPHARM higher by about 1%, making it the biggest sectoral gainer so far on the day.

Separately, Zydus ZYDU.NS gained 2.7% after its cancer drug partnership with Agenus and Glenmark GLEN.NS added 2.3% after its myeloma drug delivered a high response in the phase 1 trial, boosting the sub-index further.

Reliance Industries RELI.NS added 1.3%, marking the second consecutive session of gains for the oil-to-telecom conglomerate.

Brokerage firm JP Morgan said Reliance Industries' earnings for the next two years would be better compared with the last two due to growth expected in retail and telecom businesses.

The market's overall positive momentum was bolstered by its Asian peers, which crept higher while the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields languished. MKTS/GLOB

The drop in yields will turn out to be good for emerging markets like India in the medium term, but the spike in trade and geopolitical uncertainty will keep the market within a range for the near term, said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.

Yields move inversely to prices, and lower yields lead investors to seek higher returns in equities, boosting emerging markets like India.

Investors in India are waiting for the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) policy decision on Friday, when the domestic central bank is widely expected to cut key lending rates by 25 basis points for the third straight meeting.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected];))

Adds Lone Star's response in paragraph 4

May 28 (Reuters) - BP's BP.L Castrol lubricants business is attracting interest from companies such as India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The business has also attracted interest from buyout firms Apollo Global Management APO.N and Lone Star Funds, the report said, adding that a deal could fetch between $8 billion and $10 billion.

BP has sent out initial information to other potential bidders for the unit, including Brookfield Asset Management BAM.TO and Stonepeak Partners, it added.

BP, Apollo Global and Lone Star declined to comment, while Reliance Industries did not immediately respond outside business hours in India.

The bidders would join Saudi Aramco 2222.SE in considering bids for all or part of the business. Reuters reported last week that BP is seeking buyers for its Castrol unit, citing sources.

(Reporting by Unnamalai L in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

(([email protected]))

May 27 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• JIOBLACKROCK ASSET MANAGEMENT RECEIVES SEBI APPROVAL FOR MUTUAL FUNDS BUSINESS -STATEMENT

• SID SWAMINATHAN NAMED AS MD, CEO OF NEW ASSET MANAGEMENT CO OF JIOBLACKROCK ASSET MANAGEMENT-STATEMENT

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];))

MUMBAI, May 26 (Reuters) - India's Jio Credit's plans to raise 15 billion rupees ($176.5 million), which includes a greenshoe option of 5 billion rupees, through sale of bonds maturing in three years, bankers said on Monday.

The company has invited bids from bankers and investors for the issue on Tuesday, they said.

Jio Credit, formerly know known as Jio Finance, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio Financial Services.

This would be the second bond issue by the company within a span of two weeks. It raised 10 billion rupees through bonds maturing in 2 years and 10 months at 7.19% coupon earlier this month.

Jio Credit did not immediately reply to a Reuters email for comment.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on May 26:

*Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 84.9950 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

(([email protected]))