RELIANCE

By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil

NEW DELHI, March 18 (Reuters) - The Indian antitrust body has raided the offices of many global advertising giants, including GroupM, Dentsu and Interpublic Group, and a broadcasters' industry group over alleged price collusion, people with direct knowledge told Reuters on Tuesday.

Officers of the Competition Commission of India searched around 10 locations after it initiated a case against the agencies and top broadcasters over allegedly fixing ad rates and discounts, said one of the sources.

Three other sources with direct knowledge confirmed the names of the entities being raided.

The raids were being carried out in Mumbai, New Delhi and Gurugram, the first source said.

Reuters was first to report the enforcement action and details of the antitrust case involving the media agencies.

Spokespersons for GroupM, Interpublic's IPG Mediabrands unit, and Dentsu did not respond to requests for comment.

The Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation also did not respond, and neither did the competition commission, which does not make public the details of its enforcement action or cases related to price collusion.

WPP-owned WPP.L GroupM is the world's largest media buying agency.

The Indian Broadcasting foundation represents top domestic broadcasters, including billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance-Disney joint venture and Sony and Zee Entertainment ZEE.NS.

Reuters was first to report the enforcement action and details of the antitrust case involving the media agencies.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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

Corrects headline and paragraph one to clarify that Reliance Jio is offering free cricket streaming on certain plans

March 17 (Reuters) - Reliance Jio, India's largest telecom firm by users, said on Monday certain tariff plans will continue to give subscribers free streaming access to Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, among the country's most-watched sporting events.

The plan is applicable to users recharging their accounts with 299 rupees ($3.44) or more and will enable them to watch matches on Reliance-Disney's newly merged JioHotstar streaming platform, the Reliance Group-owned firm said.

IPL, a money spinner and among the country's most-streamed content, is scheduled to be held between March 22 and May 25.

The move comes a month after Reuters reported that the Reliance-Disney JV will no longer offer completely free streaming for IPL cricket matches, as was the case in 2023 and 2024 in the old JioCinema platform, and will adopt a hybrid model where subscription kicks in after content consumption reaches a threshold.

The new plan also includes a 50-day trial of Reliance Jio's RELJ.NS, broadband internet services, to help boost home internet dominance with high-speed sports streaming.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's pricing strategy for the IPL and other cricketing events are closely watched - media rights for those have cost the merged group, India's biggest entertainment giant, nearly $10 billion in recent years.

The JV runs more than 100 TV channels and streaming apps in India's $28-billion media and entertainment market.

($1 = 86.8440 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar and Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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By Dharamraj Dhutia

MUMBAI, March 13 (Reuters) - India's Jio Finance, a wholly-owned unit of Jio Financial Services JIOF.NS, has tapped the debt market with its maiden commercial paper (CP) issuance, ahead of its debut bond sale later this month, three merchant bankers said on Thursday.

The non-banking finance company has issued three-month CPs at a yield of 7.80% and accepted bids worth 10 billion rupees ($114.95 million), the bankers, who have direct knowledge of the matter, told Reuters.

All of them requested anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

"As expected, Jio Finance has started its funding with a shorter-tenor CP issuance, and we are expecting its bond issue in the next 15 days before the close of the financial year (by March-end)," one of the bankers said.

Jio Finance could raise around 30 billion rupees through the sale of five-year bonds and has floated an offer for a coupon of 7.75%, according to the bankers.

"The company will speak to some investors and once it gets sufficient commitments, it will launch the issue," one of them added.

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

The firm's bonds are rated 'AAA', while the CPs are rated 'A1+' by Crisil and Care. Both the ratings are of the highest grade for the respective instruments.

"The ratings factor in JFS (Jio Financial Services) group's healthy capital structure, robust liquidity including its holding of 6.1% of RIL (Reliance Industries) shares, and its experienced management team," Crisil had said in a rating note.

Care said the ratings also take into account the company's strong capital buffers to scale up operations, its robust liquidity framework and the management's experience.

($1 = 86.9950 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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Updates for markets open

March 12 (Reuters) - India's equity benchmark indexes were flat at open on Wednesday, as gains in Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel after deals with Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring Starlink's internet services to India offset the drop in IT stocks.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI rose 0.06% to 22,516.05 as of 9:25 a.m. IST while the Sensex .BSESN gained 0.17% to 74,221.

Ten of the 13 major sectors rose. The broader, more domestically focussed small- .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 rose about 0.2% each.

U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum but reversed course in just hours, in rapid-fire moves that scrambled global financial markets.

Reliance Industries RELI.NS, the second heaviest stock on India's benchmark indexes, gained 1%, while telecom company Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS rose 2%.

Reliance Jio Platforms, a unit of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate, and Bharti Airtel have signed deals to bring Starlink internet to India.

Both deals are conditional upon Starlink obtaining government approval to begin operations in the country.

IT companies .NIFTYIT fell 1.7% amid growth and tariff uncertainty in the United States, which is a key source of revenue for the sector.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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** India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS climbs 3%, extending 2-day gains to 6.7%

** Stock set for best 2-day rise since late Jan 2024, also set for third straight gaining session

** Macquarie upgrades RELI to "Outperform" from "Neutral" and hikes PT to 1,500 rupees from 1,300 rupees

** Brokerage says upgrade triggered by "slew of favorable catalysts", including improving earnings momentum, potential listing of Jio and gradual commissioning of new energy capacities

** RELI rose 1.5% on Thursday as brokerages flagged attractive valuation after recent dip

** Stock hit more than 15-month low this week, down over 25% since hitting all-time high in July 2024

** Avg rating on RELI at "buy"; median PT is 1,559 rupees - LSEG data

** Session's gains erase stock's YTD losses; RELI up ~3% YTD

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

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** Reliance Industries RELI.NS climbs 1.5%

** Nifty 50's .NSEI second-heaviest stock lends biggest boost to index, which is up 0.1%

** Stock hit more than 15-month low this week, down over 25% since hitting all-time high in July 2024

** Jefferies says RELI at cheapest valuation in post-COVID period; reiterates "buy", retains PT at 1,660 rupees

** Adds concerns over retail slowdown, subdued energy division growth weighed on shares, but retail segment poised for growth

** Kotak Institutional Equities upgrades RELI to "buy" from "neutral"

** Expects retail business to improve in coming quarters

** RELI rated "buy" on avg; median PT is 1,559 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** Stock down 2% YTD

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

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March 4 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS RAISED DEMAND OF $2.81 BILLION ON RELIANCE INDUSTRIES, BP EXPLORATION (ALPHA),NIKO

• TAKING STEPS TO CHALLENGE JUDGMENT OF DIVISION BENCH OF DELHI HIGH COURT

• DOES NOT EXPECT ANY LIABILITY ON THIS ACCOUNT

Source text: ID:nBSE8njtC1

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

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** Reliance Industries RELI.NS slides 3% to 1,156 rupees, lowest since November 13, 2023

** This is the biggest intraday pct drop since October 2024 for billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate

** Stock among top losers on Nifty 50 index .NSEI, which is down 0.3%

** Consistent selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) impacted largecaps like Reliance, says Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at WealthMills Securities

** On Friday, FPIs offloaded Indian shares worth 116.39 billion rupees ($1.33 billion), highest single-day selling in three months

** RELI rated "buy" on avg; median PT is 1,559 rupees - LSEG

** Stock down 28% since touching record high in July 2024

** YTD, RELI down 4.4% vs NSEI's 6.7% drop

(Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru)

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Feb 28 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD - RECEIVES TAX PENALTY ORDER OF 8.8 MILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nBSE9X2gBr

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

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By Marianna Parraga

HOUSTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Since it first imposed sanctions on Venezuela's energy sector in 2019, the United States has granted individual licenses to some oil companies that allow them to export the South American country's oil to specific destinations.

Washington had imposed the sanctions over reports by international observers of irregularities in elections that have repeatedly kept President Nicolas Maduro in power.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced he was reversing a key license to U.S. producer Chevron Corp CVX.N, accusing Maduro of failing to make progress on electoral reforms and migrant returns.

In January, crude exports through active U.S. licenses averaged 450,000 barrels per day (bpd), accounting for 52% of the country's total exports, according to vessel monitoring data. But despite the authorizations, China has remained the main destination of Venezuela's oil.

The following is a list of licenses and authorizations linked to Venezuela's energy sector granted by the U.S. Treasury Department and State Department in recent years:

U.S. COMPANIES

When the U.S. imposed sanctions in 2019 through executive orders targeting the country's oil and gas sector, all U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude were immediately suspended, hitting U.S. producers with operations in Venezuela such as Chevron. U.S. service firms including SLB SLB.N, Halliburton HAL.N, Baker Hughes BKR.O and Weatherford WFRD.O were also affected.

However, the U.S. Treasury Department allowed most foreign partners of state oil company PDVSA PDVSA.UL to continue producing oil in Venezuela and exporting to destinations other than the U.S.

Under Trump's 'maximum pressure' campaign against Maduro, some firms trading and shipping Venezuela oil, including units of Russia's Rosneft ROSN.MM, also were sanctioned in 2020.

Many PDVSA partners including Chevron ceased exports of Venezuelan oil as a result, which led to a rapid accumulation of debt and dividends, and the state company began using little known intermediaries to allocate its crude to China.

In late 2022, however, President Joe Biden's administration granted an automatically renewable license to Chevron to expand operations in Venezuela and resume exports to the U.S. with the goal of recovering up to $3 billion in debt.

Trump said on Wednesday that deal was being terminated.

EUROPEAN COMPANIES

Since 2019, the U.S. State Department has issued individual authorizations to European companies including Spain's Repsol REP.MC, Italy's Eni ENI.MI and France's Maurel & Prom MAUP.PA to operate in Venezuela and export Venezuelan oil.

Most authorizations include options for the European companies to swap PDVSA's Venezuelan crude for refined products, which has eased scarcity of motor fuels and diluents for extra-heavy oil output in the OPEC country.

The permits granted during Biden's administration limited the destinations of Venezuelan crude cargoes sent by PDVSA's European partners, which has ultimately lead to an increase in imports of Venezuelan crude by authorized countries such as Spain.

INDIAN COMPANIES

Indian refiner Reliance Industries RELI.NS has also received U.S. authorizations intermittently in recent years, with the most recent in effect since 2024.

The permit has allowed small volumes of Venezuela's oil to flow to India, which was its third-largest market before sanctions were imposed.

TRINIDAD

Biden's government issued two licenses for natural gas developments between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, one including Shell SHEL.L and Trinidad's National Gas Company NGCTT.UL for the Dragon offshore gas project, and another to BP BP.L for the Cocuina-Manakin project.

Both authorizations are current, with Trinidad aiming for extensions so the projects can secure first gas output to be supplied to Trinidad in coming years.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

(([email protected]; +1 713 371 7559; Reuters Messaging: @mariannaparraga))

Feb 26 (Reuters) - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd ONGC.NS:

• ONGC - CLARIFIES REPORT "DID ONGC HIDE MAJOR LEGAL VICTORY AGAINST RELIANCE INDUSTRIES"

• ONGC LTD - CO IS NOT A PARTY IN ABOVE REFERRED COURT CASE

• ONGC - REPORTED CASE IS BETWEEN GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, RELIANCE INDUSTRIES

Source text: ID:nBSE48R0lh

Further company coverage: ONGC.NS

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Adds more merger information, context, share price movement

Feb 25 (Reuters) - India's Tata Group and Bharti Group are close to merging their satellite TV businesses, creating a nearly $1.6 billion entity with the aim of tiding over the sustained migration of subscribers to digital streaming, Economic Times reported on Tuesday.

The merged entity is expected to be run by Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, which will likely hold between 52%-55% with the remaining held by Tata Play TATK.BO shareholders, including Walt Disney DIS.N, the report said, citing sources.

Bharti Airtel, Tata Play and Disney did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments.

Tata Play, a 70:30 venture between Tata Sons and Disney, and Airtel had a combined 35 million paid subscribers as of last September, more than half the 60 million subscribers industry-wide at the time, according to a government report.

The two businesses are being approximately valued between 60 billion ($690.76 million)-70 billion rupees ($805.89 million) each, with their revenue exceeding 70 billion rupees in fiscal 2024, ET reported.

The deal is the second major one in the sector since Dish TV DSTV.NS merged with Videocon d2h in 2016 and follows the $8.5 billion-merger of Reliance Industries RELI.NS streaming media assets with Disney's Indian media assets last year.

Bharti Airtel shares were last up 1.7% on the day.

($1 = 86.8610 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

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-- Source link: https://tinyurl.com/ynajmfz8

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

((Bengaluru newsroom, [email protected]))

BENGALURU, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) on Wednesday launched a 5 billion rupee ($57.58 million) fund to help early-stage space technologies go commercial and reduce reliance on imports as the country seeks to boost its market share in the global space industry.

The Technology Adoption Fund will also connect government bodies with the private sector, aiming to position India as a reliable partner in the increasingly competitive market, the space regulator said in a statement.

"The fund will offer financial support of up to 60% of the project cost for startups and medium and small businesses, and 40% for larger industries, with a maximum funding cap of 250 million rupees per project," said Pawan Goenka, chairman of IN-SPACe.

"This support will enable companies to refine their technologies, enhance production processes and meet market demands both within India and abroad."

India opened its space industry to private investment last year as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government pushed for greater monetization of the sector, long dominated by the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The country hopes liberalized regulations will attract global players, mirroring the commercial space boom seen in the United States and Europe.

A joint venture between Reliance Industries' RELI.NS Jio Platforms and Luxembourg-based SES SESFg.LU has secured regulatory approval to provide gigabit fiber internet, while Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's AMZN.O Kuiper await licenses.

The government has also sanctioned a separate 10 billion rupee venture capital fund for space startups, awarded contracts for ISRO’s main launch vehicle to private firms and intensified efforts to forge global commercial partnerships.

"We are witnessing a surge of pioneering startups developing groundbreaking solutions for the space industry. But to turn these concepts into practical products that can be offered to a new marketplace, there must be sufficient funding, especially from government institutions at this specific stage," said AK Bhatt, director general of the Indian Space Association.

($1 = 86.8320 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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Feb 18 (Reuters) -

• INDIA GOVERNMENT: SIGNED PROGRAMME AGREEMENT WITH RELIANCE NEW ENERGY BATTERY LTD UNDER PLI SCHEME FOR ADVANCED CHEMISTRY CELL

• INDIA GOVERNMENT: AGREEMENT AWARDS RELIANCE NEW ENERGY BATTERY LTD 10 GWH ADVANCED BATTERY CELL CAPACITY

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];))

Updates for markets close

By Bharath Rajeswaran and Chris Thomas

Feb 17 (Reuters) - India's benchmark indexes settled flat on Monday after eight sessions of declines, as gains in heavyweights HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries offset weakness due to muted corporate earnings and global trade uncertainty.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI added 0.13% to 22,959.5, while the BSE Sensex .BSESN was up 0.08% at 75,996.86.

Both the benchmarks logged their longest losing streak in two years on Friday.

They had dropped 0.8% each during Monday's session before erasing losses in the final hour. The volatility index .NIFVIX spiked for the sixth session in a row to 15.72, a two-week closing high.

Markets could continue to remain muted due to a combination of factors such as slowing earnings, elevated corporate valuations and concerns over U.S. tariffs, said Seshadri Sen, head of research at Emkay Global.

HDFC Bank HDBK.NS and Reliance Industries RELI.NS, the heaviest stocks on the Nifty 50, rose 1.33% and 0.63% on the day, helping the benchmarks recover from intraday losses.

Large caps are likely to remain resilient due to their valuations falling below the 10-year average after the recent drop in markets, analysts said.

The broader smallcaps .NIFSMCP100 closed flat, while midcaps .NIFMDCP100 gained 0.4%.

On Friday, the small-cap index ended more than 20% below its record closing high on December 11, confirming a bear market.

Even with the sharp decline, small and midcaps are still trading above their historical average valuations, making them vulnerable to further selling pressure, said Rohit Murarka, business head of Kotak Cherry at Kotak Alternate Asset Managers.

Information technology .NIFTYIT, the second heaviest sub-index on the benchmarks, fell 0.6%, with eight of its 10 constituents in the red.

The auto index .NIFTYAUTO lost 0.5%, dragged down by a 3.8% drop in Mahindra & Mahindra MAHM.NS. The stock has fallen 13.4% since a record peak on Feb. 10.

UBS on Monday said the booking numbers for the firm's new electric vehicles fell short of expectations.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Savio D'Souza, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sonia Cheema)

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By Florence Tan and Nidhi Verma

SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Tightened U.S. sanctions on Moscow have disrupted a roaring trade in discounted Russian oil to China and India, reviving demand for Middle Eastern and African crudes, roiling shipping markets and driving up oil prices.

Washington's January 10 sanctions targeted tankers carrying Russian oil in a push to more effectively limit Moscow's oil revenue, the aim of western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

The new rules have left millions of barrels floating on ships and sent traders hunting for alternatives, while dealings in Russian crude, the biggest source for top global importers China and India, have slowed for March.

The scramble has upended market dynamics. For a few weeks, high-sulphur benchmark Dubai became more expensive than low-sulphur Brent, which is easier to process. That opened opportunities for producers from Brazil to Kazakhstan to gain share in China and India.

Premiums for Brazilian crude surged last month to about $5 a barrel against dated Brent on cost and freight basis to China, up from about $2 in the previous month, traders said. That premium is now just below $5 a barrel for May arrival cargoes.

In March, China is set to import its first cargo since June 2024 of Kazakhstan's CPC Blend, Kpler data showed.

In the week after the new sanctions, TotalEnergies' TTEF.PA trading arm TOTSA received so many enquiries that it held tenders instead of private negotiations to sell its Middle Eastern crude cargoes, which eventually went to China's CNOOC and Rongsheng Petrochemical, a Singapore-based trader said.

TotalEnergies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reflecting the rush for Middle Eastern crudes, premiums for benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban more than doubled in January from December and remain above $3 a barrel to Dubai, despite lower demand from refineries in seasonal maintenance.

In addition, top exporter Saudi Aramco hiked prices for Asia-bound crude to the highest since December 2023, raising costs for refiners.

A seller of Angolan crude said there was an increase in demand from Asian buyers looking to cover.

"Unipec is taking a lot West African crude cargoes, especially Angolan barrels - good buying interest after the Lunar New Year," a Chinese trader said. Unipec is the trading arm of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec 600028.SS. Sinopec did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With sanctioned ships stuck on the water, many traders have rushed to switch to other vessels which now cost multiple times more, adding millions of dollars to the expense of each shipment.

INDIA SCRAMBLES

The rising costs are particularly tough for refiners in India. The country late last year cemented its shift from long-standing Middle Eastern sources to buy more oil from Russia, when Reliance Industries RELI.NS struck a 10-year supply deal with Russian state giant Rosneft ROSN.MM worth roughly $13 billion annually.

This week, India's oil secretary said the country's refiners want to buy only Russian oil supplied by companies and ships not sanctioned by the U.S. That has effectively reduced the number of cargoes and vessels available, Indian refining sources said.

With a limited supply of sanctions-proof cargoes, discounts for Russian Urals crude to dated Brent have narrowed to $2.50-$2.90 a barrel for March delivery, versus $3-$3.50 before the January sanctions, they said, a major cost increase on a typical one million barrel cargo.

Higher Russian crude costs have narrowed the price gap with Middle East crude to about $3 a barrel from $6-$7 for Indian refiners, offering little incentive to risk incurring secondary sanctions, Indian refining sources said.

Indian buyers turned down offers from Russian shipping giant Sovcomflot FLOT.MM to receive payments in any currencies, including Indian rupees, for Russian oil shipped on sanctioned tankers, the sources said, after its CEO met buyers in India on the sidelines of the India Energy Week conference this week. Sovcomflot declined to comment.

The slowdown has meant that Russian oil stored aboard ships has increased by 17 million barrels since January 10, according to a February 5 note from Goldman Sachs, and is expected to rise to 50 million barrels in the first half of 2025.

"We're seeing floating volume pick up. There's a number of tankers carrying Russian oil hanging out around Shandong and southern ports in China that are normally not big entry points," said a senior executive at a major global trading house.

Shandong province is the hub for independent Chinese refiners that have been core buyers of discounted sanctioned oil from Russia as well as Iran and Venezuela.

IRAN'S OUTPUT TARGETED

The Russian supply disruption comes on top of falling Iranian oil imports by top customer China amid tightening U.S. pressure, with President Donald Trump recently vowing to bring Tehran's oil exports to zero.

Goldman Sachs estimated Iranian floating storage has risen by 14 million barrels since the start of the year to its highest in 14 months. Tighter sanctions enforcement could cut Iran's output by 1 million barrels per day and push Brent to the high $80s a barrel by May, the analysts said.

The squeeze on cheap crude into China, coupled with weak domestic demand, has led several independent refiners to shut for maintenance instead of losing 500 yuan ($68.62) for every ton of non-sanctioned crude processed based on offers at $7-$8 a barrel above ICE Brent delivered to China, a trader said.

China's state refiners, meanwhile, are likely to shun Russian oil as sanctions reduce the number of counterparties and insurers for such transactions, while key ports such as Qingdao and Rizhao have become stricter, said a source with knowledge of the matter.

The person estimated Russian export volumes to China would fall by between 700,000 and 800,000 barrels per day from March, after sanctions waivers lapse. That would amount to at least a 70% decline from January, according to Kpler data.

WARNED

Weeks before the sanctions were announced in a 27-page document, Indian refiners were warned by authorities and made some purchases in advance, industry officials said. The Indian government did not respond to a request for comment on whether refiners were warned in advance.

In China, the Shandong Port Group issued a ban three days earlier on sanctioned ships from calling at its ports, although it is not clear whether the move was related.

Other signs that markets were anticipating new measures included higher demand for Middle East and African crude from Chinese and Indian buyers, and a rush to charter ships that subsequently drove up tanker rates sharply, traders said.

Adi Imsirovic, director of consultancy Surrey Clean Energy, and former oil trader at Russia's Gazprom, said the impact of the sanctions may curb Russian exports by up to 1.5 million barrels per day in the near-term.

"The only true prediction that we can make is that the market is just going to get more volatile. With more and more government intervention in the markets, it's just going to get more volatile," he said.

($1 = 7.2870 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; additional reporting by Siyi Liu and Chen Aizhu in Singapore, Anna Hirtenstein, Alex Lawler, Ahmad Ghaddar in London; Editing by Tony Munroe and Sonali Paul)

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By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The Reliance-Disney joint venture will no longer offer completely free streaming for IPL cricket matches and will adopt a hybrid model where subscription kicks in after content consumption reaches a threshold, three sources told Reuters on Thursday.

The entity will also launch a new rebranded streaming app, with plans starting at 149 rupees, said the first source.

The decision to change the terms of streaming the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world's richest cricket league, comes after Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance and Walt Disney combined their India media assets in an $8.5 billion merger last year.

JioCinema has allowed free IPL streaming since securing the rights for the popular tournament for five years, beginning in 2023 for $3 billion.

Now, all streaming content, including IPL, will shift to a hybrid model where free viewing will be offered for a while, and then users will need to take subscriptions depending on their consumption patterns, said two of the sources with direct knowledge.

"Once a user develops affinity to the platform, start watching free, becomes loyal ... the subscription will kick in then," said the first source, adding that each user's subscription could start at a different point of time.

The sources declined to be named as the plans are confidential.

Reliance, which controls the joint venture, did not respond to requests for comment.

The joint venture entity's streaming offering will be available on a new rebranded app, which will offer a basic plan starting 149 rupees ($1.72) and an ad-free version for 499 rupees ($5.75) for three months, said the first source.

The Reliance-Disney venture runs more than 100 TV channels and streaming apps in India's $28-billion media and entertainment market, where it also competes with Netflix and Amazon Prime, among others.

JioCinema had the rights to IPL cricket, a money-spinner and among the most-streamed content, as well as to the Winter Olympics and Indian Super League football. Disney's Hotstar app had the rights to the International Cricket Council's tournaments in India and English Premier League soccer.

Key decisions at the entity are being taken by Vice Chairman Uday Shankar, a media industry veteran who in his previous roles was instrumental in the rise of Disney's Hotstar streaming app.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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

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

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES - INCORPORATION OF A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY IN SINGAPORE

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES - UNIT TO SET UP GLOBAL CAPABILITY CENTRE FOR CONSOLIDATING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES - COMPANY WILL INVEST USD 100,000 TOWARDS

Source text: ID:nBSEbtJtD6

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

(([email protected];))

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

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Feb 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India is pulling out all the stops to be on Donald Trump's good side. The country has already made tariff concessions and fielded a planeload of deported immigrants ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to meet the U.S. President at the White House. But it is migration, not trade, that will be the sticking point in bilateral relations.

Narrowing India's $35 billion trade surplus with the United States should be manageable. Earlier this month, New Delhi undertook wide-ranging cuts to duties on American imports from Harley Davidson HOG.N motorcycles to components used by Apple AAPL.O to build smartphones. The country can also pledge to buy more American weapons and oil. Shipments of the latter amounted to $5 billion, or just 4% of bilateral trade, in the year to March 2024.

What Modi can offer on migration is far less straightforward. Trump has vowed to deport millions of illegal workers in the country and as of 2022, India was the third-largest source of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. behind Mexico and El Salvador, per data from Pew Research Center.

The country also supplies a huge chunk of legal skilled workers: India accounts for 72% of so-called H-1B visas, which allow companies from Amazon AMZN.O to Alphabet GOOGL.O, as well as Indian giants like Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, to hire specialised overseas workers such as software engineers. The programme benefits both sides: Big Tech gets access to lower-cost talent while India's skilled labour can find employment. But visa issuances have shrunk in recent years and the programme is getting an intense backlash from some of Trump's supporters.

A possible deal could see Modi agree to accept deported Indians back into the country without fuss in exchange for U.S. officials to speed up H-1B visas. But a repeat of the spectacle this month of hundreds of handcuffed people alighting from a U.S. military plane would be politically embarrassing, and shines an ugly spotlight on India's lack of high-quality jobs.

The problem for Modi, though, is that he has a weak hand with Trump with the fortunes of India's top tycoons hanging in the balance. Infrastructure magnate Gautam Adani is battling fraud charges levelled by U.S. federal investigators and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which his Adani group denies. The White House can also squeeze access to cheap Russian oil that helps India to keep inflation low, and which its largest company, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries RELI.NS, is processing, or punish India with tariffs for pushing trade transactions in non-dollar currencies. A lot rides on Modi's U.S. charm offensive.

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CONTEXT NEWS

U.S. President Donald Trump has invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the White House during February 12-14, Reuters reported on February 4, citing an unnamed White House official.

Separately, India slashed custom duties on motorcycles, such as those from Harley Davidson, with engine capacity of 1,600 cc or more, to 30% from 50% on fully built imports in the government’s annual budget announced on February 1. New Delhi also cut average tariffs to 11% from 13%, Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey told Reuters in an interview after the budget.

(Editing by Robyn Mak and Ujjaini Dutta)

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Updates with remarks from investor call, stock movement

By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine

Feb 5 (Reuters) - Walt Disney DIS.N sharply outperformed Wall Street's quarterly earnings estimates on Wednesday, with results buoyed by the strong holiday box office performance of animated sequel "Moana 2," though the company warned of a modest decline in Disney+ streaming subscribers in the coming quarter.

The strength in entertainment helped offset a decline at Disney's domestic theme parks, which were impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton in Florida. The parks-led Experiences group also incurred about $75 million in expenses associated with the December launch of the Disney Treasure cruise ship.

Disney reported a 44% jump in adjusted per-share earnings of $1.76 for the October-December quarter, exceeding the $1.45 per-share earnings consensus estimate of 24 analysts surveyed by LSEG.

Revenue for the fiscal first quarter rose 5% to $24.69 billion, slightly ahead of analysts' projections of $24.62 billion. Operating income rose 31% from a year earlier to $5.1 billion.

Shares fell more than 1% in early trading, as investors appeared to react to Disney's guidance that its flagship Disney+ streaming service would shed a modest number of subscribers in the coming quarter following its recent price increase. That stands in sharp contrast to rival Netflix's record gains of 19 million subscribers.

"Clearly, Netflix won last quarter's battle in the overall streaming war," said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. "While Disney’s (streaming) business posted a modest revenue increase, it was largely driven by price hikes. Price pinching consumers isn’t a long-term growth strategy."

Disney forecast "high single digit" adjusted earnings-per-share growth in fiscal 2025 compared with 2024, and an increase of approximately $875 million in operating income at the streaming entertainment unit.

The company also said it would incur $50 million in costs associated with exiting its Venu Sports joint venture with Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O and Fox FOXA.O. The media companies abandoned their plans for a sports streaming service in January, after it ran into substantial legal opposition.

Operating income at Disney's Entertainment unit, which includes film, television and streaming, increased to $1.7 billion, nearly double the results from a year earlier, thanks in part to the strong performance of "Moana 2."

The animated sequel topped $1 billion in box office in January, becoming the fourth Walt Disney Animation film to reach that milestone.

"Disney has turned in the fairytale performance investors had been hoping for ... It shows that Disney is still a powerful force to be reckoned with when it comes to delivering blockbuster hits," said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

TELEVISION BUSINESS

Disney's traditional television business continued to erode. Operating income at so-called linear networks fell 11% to $1.1 billion. Iger called the company's venerable TV networks "an asset" that enhances its overall television business, including streaming.

"While I won't rule out the possibility some of the smaller networks, in some form or another, being configured differently in terms of how we bring them to market, maybe even ownership," said Iger. "But right now, we actually feel good about the hand that we have."

The remarks come as Comcast CMCSA.O prepares to spin off its some cable networks into a separately traded company.

Subscribers for the flagship streaming video service, Disney+, slipped 1% from the prior quarter to 124.6 million. The company had warned of a modest drop because of a price increase that took effect in October. It also forecast a modest decline in Disney+ subscribers in the second quarter compared to the first.

Disney+ and Hulu produced an operating profit of $293 million, marking the third straight quarter of profitability and a turnaround from the year-ago loss of $138 million.

Disney said its addition of ESPN to Disney+ has encouraged subscribers to sample sports programming, increasing time spent on the app, a trend it hopes to capitalize on with the addition of a daily "SportsCenter" studio show called "SC+" this year. All of this sets the stage for the launch of its flagship ESPN offering within the app this fall.

In the Experiences segment, which includes consumer products and the cruise line, as well as parks, operating income was roughly flat at $3.1 billion. Profit declined 5% at domestic parks because the hurricanes and cruise ship costs, while operating income at international parks rose 28% from a year ago.

"Parks has always been Disney's ace-in-the-hole, a massively profitable division that helped to subsidize the immense cost required to prop up a cash-burning streaming operation," said Brandon Katz, senior entertainment industry strategist at Parrot Analytics.

"It's concerning that Parks has now reported softer-than-expected results in back-to-back quarters."

At the Sports unit, which includes the ESPN network and Star India business, operating income was $247 million, compared with a year-ago loss, in part reflecting improvement in Star India's operating results ahead of Disney and Reliance Industries completing a deal to combine their Indian media assets.

Iger appeared to reference rival Netflix's entry into live sports during the investor call, and its Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing match and its Christmas Day NFL games, saying ESPN provides sports fans with programming "365 days a year, 24 hours a day."

"So if you're a sports fan, it's not about one day of one boxing event or one day of football," said Iger. "It's about sports every single day of the year and every hour of the day. And that's a pretty compelling ... consumer proposition."

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Nick Zieminski)

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Repeats item first published on Sunday

By Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Reliance Retail has launched an app in India to sell fashionwear from China's Shein under a licensing deal, almost five years since Shein's app was banned in the country after getting caught up in a diplomatic tussle.

Reliance, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, launched the app on Saturday morning, said a person with direct knowledge of Reliance's launch plans. The firm did not announce the launch.

Neither parent Reliance Industries RELI.NS nor Shein responded to requests for comment outside of business hours.

The Shein India Fast Fashion app represents a departure from Reliance's strategy of adding brands to its flagship fashion app Ajio - whose offering includes Superdry and Gap - as it competes with rivals such as Myntra from Walmart's WMT.N Flipkart.

Shein, founded in China in 2012 and later headquartered in Singapore, offers a vast selection of low-priced Western clothes. Its app was banned in India in 2020 alongside other Chinese apps such as ByteDance's TikTok due to data security concerns, after a border dispute soured Indo-Chinese relations.

Last year, India's government disclosed to parliament that Reliance had entered an agreement with Shein under which Indian manufacturers would supply products under the Shein brand. It did not make any other details public.

"The fashion OG (original) is back," said a message displayed upon opening the app. Deliveries will initially be limited to a few cities including New Delhi and Mumbai and expanded nationwide soon, it said.

Offerings include dresses priced as low as 350 rupees ($4).

Reliance will pay a licence fee for using Shein's brand name, said the person with direct knowledge of the matter. There is no equity investment in the partnership, the person said, without elaborating on financial arrangements.

All Shein-branded products sold through the app are designed and made in India, said a second person with direct knowledge of the matter. The clothing will later be made available on Ajio, the person said, without providing a time frame.

Shein aims to list in London in the first half of the year. It ended its attempt to list in the U.S. following objections from lawmakers who questioned China's requirement for businesses to seek approval to list abroad, Reuters has reported.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Christopher Cushing)

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By Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Reliance Retail has launched an app in India to sell fashionwear from China's Shein under a licensing deal, almost five years since Shein's app was banned in the country after getting caught up in a diplomatic tussle.

Reliance, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, launched the app on Saturday morning, said a person with direct knowledge of Reliance's launch plans. The firm did not announce the launch.

Neither parent Reliance Industries RELI.NS nor Shein responded to requests for comment outside of business hours.

The Shein India Fast Fashion app represents a departure from Reliance's strategy of adding brands to its flagship fashion app Ajio - whose offering includes Superdry and Gap - as it competes with rivals such as Myntra from Walmart's WMT.N Flipkart.

Shein, founded in China in 2012 and later headquartered in Singapore, offers a vast selection of low-priced Western clothes. Its app was banned in India in 2020 alongside other Chinese apps such as ByteDance's TikTok due to data security concerns, after a border dispute soured Indo-Chinese relations.

Last year, India's government disclosed to parliament that Reliance had entered an agreement with Shein under which Indian manufacturers would supply products under the Shein brand. It did not make any other details public.

"The fashion OG (original) is back," said a message displayed upon opening the app. Deliveries will initially be limited to a few cities including New Delhi and Mumbai and expanded nationwide soon, it said.

Offerings include dresses priced as low as 350 rupees ($4).

Reliance will pay a licence fee for using Shein's brand name, said the person with direct knowledge of the matter. There is no equity investment in the partnership, the person said, without elaborating on financial arrangements.

All Shein-branded products sold through the app are designed and made in India, said a second person with direct knowledge of the matter. The clothing will later be made available on Ajio, the person said, without providing a time frame.

Shein aims to list in London in the first half of the year. It ended its attempt to list in the U.S. following objections from lawmakers who questioned China's requirement for businesses to seek approval to list abroad, Reuters has reported.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Christopher Cushing)

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Adds more details throughout

Jan 27 (Reuters) - Indian refiners' throughput in December rose 5.2% year-on-year to 5.64 million barrels per day (23.87 million metric tons), provisional government data showed on Monday.

India, which is the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, saw fuel demand rising to a seven-month high in December, while crude oil imports rose to the highest level in four months.

Earlier this month, the U.S. imposed its broadest package of sanctions so far targeting Russia's oil and gas revenue, in an effort to give Kyiv and Donald Trump's administration leverage to reach a deal for peace in Ukraine.

"It may last a few months until alternate supply or alternate vessels are figured out by either Russia or Indian refiners," Prashant Vasisht, vice president and co-head of corporate ratings at ICRA, said.

"Indian refineries so far benefited from discounted Russian barrels, so it comes down to what happens to Russian flows going forward," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

The share of Middle East oil in India's oil imports last month rose to a 22-month high of nearly 52% as refiners turned to the region to make up for the short supply of Russian oil, data showed.

Meanwhile, middlemen supplying Russian oil are not offering cargoes due to the new U.S. sanctions, according to the finance chief of Bharat Petroleum.

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 Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

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Jan 23 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES - SALE OF 100% STAKE IN M ENTERTAINMENTS PRIVATE LIMITED

• RELIANCE INDUSTRIES - DEAL FOR CONSIDERATION OF 1.2 MILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nBSEbwP9dc

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

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Jan 22 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE CONSUMER PRODUCTS ACQUIRES SIL BRAND - STATEMENT

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Corrects to say Jeff Bezos is Amazon chairman, not CEO

By Stephanie Kelly

Jan 20 (Reuters) - Tech billionaires, foreign diplomats and CEOs shadowed U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, with several attending St. John's Church in Washington and seated prominently on the dais in the U.S. Capitol ahead of his speech.

The church service, typically a little-noticed part of Inauguration Day, quickly became a "who's who" parade of some of the United States' - and the world's - wealthiest individuals, as attendees entered the downtown church near the White House. Tech executives' embrace of Trump, including billionaires such as Elon Musk in Trump's inner circle, has become a major theme of Trump's transition into power, and sparked warnings from former President Joe Biden.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of some Inauguration Day attendees.

TESLA CEO ELON MUSK

Musk, the world's richest man and head of Tesla TSLA.O, SpaceX and X, spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump in November, and Trump has tapped Musk to lead a department aimed at creating a more efficient U.S. government.

He arrived at the church service alone.

TIKTOK CEO SHOU ZI CHEW

One day before Trump's inauguration, TikTok thanked him for what they said was his role in restoring service of the app to American users. As TikTok faced a Sunday ban in the U.S., Trump said he would revive the app's access in the U.S. when he returned to power on Monday, adding that the U.S. will seek a joint venture to restore the short-video sharing app used by 170 million Americans.

META CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG

Since Trump was elected in November, Zuckerberg announced that his social-media company Meta Platforms META.O scrapped its U.S. fact-checking program and reduced curbs on discussions around contentious topics such as immigration and gender identity, bowing to criticism from Trump's conservative supporters. Zuckerberg has tried to mend fences with the new administration, while Trump in the past pledged to imprison the CEO.

Zuckerberg arrived at the church with his wife, Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician.

MIRIAM ADELSON

Casino billionaire and Republican mega-donor Adelson led the Preserve America super PAC, which boosted Trump. Born in Israel, Adelson and her husband Sheldon were crucial backers in Trump's first presidential win.

INDIAN BILLIONAIRE MUKESH AMBANI

Ambani, the richest man in India, heads Reliance Industries RELI.NS, India's most valuable company involved in businesses including energy and retail. Ambani also attended Trump's pre-inauguration ceremony.

THE ARNAULT FAMILY

LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault attended with his wife Helene Mercier and two of his children, Delphine Arnault and Alexandre Arnault. All of Arnault's five children hold prominent positions in his luxury-goods group, the world's largest. Delphine Arnault heads the fashion label Dior, while Alexandre, who has played a key role rebranding its American jewelry label Tiffany & Co, is returning to France from the United States to help run the group's wines & spirits division. The Arnault family is France's wealthiest, with a holding in LVMH worth around $200 billion.

AMAZON CHAIRMAN JEFF BEZOS

Bezos, who runs the rocket company Blue Origin and the Washington Post newspaper, defended his paper's decision to not endorse a U.S. presidential candidate ahead of this year's election. The decision blocked an endorsement of Trump's political opponent Kamala Harris.

Amazon AMZN.O will stream Trump's inauguration on its Prime Video service. Bezos's fiancee Lauren Sanchez arrived at the Capitol with him.

GOOGLE CEO SUNDAR PICHAI

Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google, along with other companies such as Amazon and Meta, donated $1 million each to Trump's inaugural fund. Trump will likely dial back some of the antitrust policies pursued under former President Joe Biden, potentially including a bid to break up Google over its dominance in online search, experts said.

FORMER UK PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON

Johnson, who was once dubbed "Britain Trump" by Trump himself, met with Trump in 2023 to discuss "the vital importance of Ukrainian victory" over its invasion by Russia. Johnson had been keen to forge a profile as one of Ukraine's most ardent backers in its fight against Russia.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Nandita Bose; Editing by Heather Timmons and Rod Nickel)

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

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Jan 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Reliance Industries RELI.NS is enjoying a brief moment of cheer. Earnings at Mukesh Ambani’s $198 billion conglomerate grew 7.4% in the three months to the end of December, after falling for nine straight months. But a new round of U.S. sanctions on Russia’s oil supply network appear to have caught India’s largest public company off guard and threaten to hurt its recovery.

Reliance's oil-to-chemicals division reported a 2.4% year-on-year increase in EBITDA, due largely to strong domestic sales and the availability of cheap crude for its refineries. The company's commentary sidestepped the elephant in the room, however.

Since Russia was made a pariah from the U.S.-led global financial system following its invasion of Ukraine three years ago, Reliance has benefited from supplies of discounted crude from Moscow. The company imports oil to refine at its facilities in Gujarat on the western coast of India and exports the product to Europe and elsewhere. Washington turned a blind eye to this trade, and an emboldened Reliance formalised it last month by signing a 10-year supply deal with Rosneft ROSN.MM.

Gains from that agreement were set to be worth around $13 billion annually, according to Reuters, citing sources, and are now set to fade after the United States turned the screws on Russia last week. The Treasury’s sanctions against 183 ships include tankers that handled about 42% of Russia’s seaborne crude exports last year, per energy and shipping data provider Kpler.

Rosneft’s supplies would have met more than one-third of Reliance’s refinery requirement, starting January, and could lift the gross refining margin by as much as $2 a barrel, analysts at Jefferies reckon. The margin stood at $8.05 in September, per estimates on Visible Alpha. The sanctions will force the conglomerate to source more of its crude from the open market, where Brent prices have risen over 2% to nearly $82 a barrel since the latest curbs were announced.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the cash cow business of Ambani’s empire: Reliance’s shares fell in 2024 and underperformed the benchmark Nifty 50 Index .NSEI by almost 15 percentage points. While consumption businesses like retail and telecoms have ramped up to account for 52% of group EBITDA, Indians are now holding back from spending as wages stagnate in the $4 trillion economy.

Investors may also worry about Reliance’s smarts. India’s state-run refiners had been discussing a long-term deal to purchase Russian crude but have now paused talks, Business Standard newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed officials in the Ministry of Petroleum. By being first to sign, Reliance is left in an awkward position with both Washington and its shareholders.

Follow @ShritamaBose on X

CONTEXT NEWS

Reliance Industries on Jan. 16 reported a 7.4% year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit for the three months to the end of December to $2.14 billion. EBITDA in the oil-to-chemicals business grew 2.4% and the EBITDA margin dropped 40 basis points to 9.6%.

The U.S. Treasury on Jan. 10 imposed sanctions on Russian oil producers Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, as well as on 183 ships that have been transporting Russian oil and two maritime insurance providers based in the country.

(Editing by Una Galani and Aditya Srivastav)

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[email protected]))

Jan 16 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS:

• RELIANCE EXEC: DOMESTIC OIL DEMAND WAS STRONG IN Q3

• RELIANCE EXEC: RELIANCE RETAIL IS EXPANDING ITS EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICES

• RELIANCE EXEC: RETAIL SEGMENT WELL POSITIONED FOR GROWTH IN COMING QUARTERS

Further company coverage: RELI.NS

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** Shares of Reliance Industries RELI.NS fall 1.07% to 1,251.40 rupees amid broader market weakness .BO

** Stock has fallen about 22% from record high on July 8, 2024, compared to 3.3% decline in Nifty 50 .NSEI in same period

** However, Goldman Sachs says the sell-off "is overdone," and it being close to the brokerage's bear scenario assumes weakness in oil, telecom and retail segments

** Telecom returns under Jio are already poised for strong growth, although retail segment growth is taking longer - GS

** Brokerage expects flat YoY core profit growth but 5% sequential gain in Q3 FY25 earnings report

** Brokerage expects core profit to grow 24% in FY26E

** Improving oil refining margins, potential telecom tariff hike in FY26, and retail rev growth after ops restructuring and macro improvement to drive FY26 growth, GS says

(Reporting by Ananta Agarwal in Bengaluru)

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