Reliance Industries Limited, privately owned conglomerate that operates in petrochemical production and refining, textile, retail, marketing, telecommunications, and other industries. It was the first privately owned Indian company to enter the Fortune 500. Headquarters are in Mumbai.
Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up in 1958 by Dhirubhai Ambani as a small venture firm trading commodities, especially spices and polyester yarn. Pursuing a strategy of backward integration and diversification, it opened its first textile mill in Naroda, Gujarat state, and was incorporated in 1966 as Reliance Textiles and Engineers, Ltd. Over the next decade its business focused on the textile industry even as it continued to expand.
Seeking to raise financial capital through means more accessible than India’s nationalized banks, Reliance took advantage of the recent “Indianization” of the stock market and floated an initial public offering (IPO) in 1977. The IPO, which issued 2.8 million shares, was credited with engaging small investors in the stock market and equity shareholding. Thousands attended the Reliance annual general meetings, which were sometimes held in a sports stadium, with many more watching on television. Company shares continued to attract investors despite the uncertainties of a stodgy economy, crippling government regulations, and political corruption, in part due to the shares’ handsome dividends as well as the founder’s charisma and vision.
With investors eager to own shares, Reliance expanded rapidly into sectors adjacent to its textile business, and in 1985 it became known as Reliance Industries Limited. After gaining the capacity to manufacture petrochemicals useful for synthetic textiles, such as polyester staple fibre and purified terephthalic acid, it later began manufacturing plastics and, eventually, refining petroleum. In 1991 Reliance opened a massive industrial complex in Hazira, Gujarat state, propelling the corporation to the forefront of production in the global polyester market. By the turn of the 21st century its new petroleum refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat state, commanded a refining capacity far exceeding that of any other petroleum refinery in the world.
Following Dhirubhai’s death in 2002, his sons Mukesh and Anil assumed joint leadership of the Reliance companies. However, the brothers’ feuding over control prompted their mother, Kokilaben, to split Reliance’s assets via a noncompetition agreement in 2005, whereby Mukesh assumed control of Reliance Industries Limited and its more traditional units while Anil gained control of the telecommunications, power generation, and financial services units through a demerger. After amending the noncompetition agreement in 2010, Reliance Industries reentered the telecommunications market through a subsidiary known as Jio Platforms; in 2013 Mukesh and Anil agreed to share telecommunication networks in their first major cooperative effort since 2005. After Reliance offered the first nationwide network for 4G broadband service, Jio became one of India’s leading brands in telecommunications and e-commerce.