Reliance shareholders, creditors approve demerger of financial services arm

Shareholders and creditors of Reliance Industries have approved a plan to demerge the company's financial services arm, Reliance Strategic Ventures Ltd (RSIL).

In filings with the stock exchanges, Reliance said that it received 99.99 per cent of votes in favour of the demerger in a shareholders' meeting that happened on May 2.

As many as 99.99 per cent of unsecured creditors voted in favour of the resolution while 100 per cent of secured lenders were in favour of the plan.

One share of the demerged company with a value of Rs 10 each will be issued for every share held in Reliance.

Post demerger, RSIL will be rechristened as Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL).

According to Jefferies Research, all necessary approvals for the listing of shares of JFS should be in place by September. "JFS will commence lending activities immediately and proceed for regulatory approvals for asset management, life and general insurance. Regulatory approvals are expected to take 12-18 months." The Mukesh Ambani-owned group last year in October approved the demerger of the financial services arm.

Currently, RSIL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance and is an RBI-registered non-deposit-taking systemically important non-banking financial company.

Reliance has named KV Kamath, former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, as the non-executive chairman of JFS.

In October last year, while announcing the demerger, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani had said, "JFS will be a truly transformational, customer-centric and digital-first financial services enterprise offering simple, affordable, innovative and intuitive financial services products to all Indians." Reliance's financial services business reported combined revenue of Rs 1,535.6 crore in the financial year 2022 and had a combined asset base of Rs 27,964 crore.

According to brokerage firm Macquarie, Jio Financial Services will be valued at more than Rs 1.52 lakh crore and become the fifth largest financial services firm in India.

Reliance closed 1.16 per cent higher at Rs 2,447.80 on the BSE