Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance to raise $1.3 billion in first rupee bond sale since 2023

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is returning to India’s rupee bond market for the first time in nearly three years, seeking to raise 125 billion rupees ($1.31 billion) through a five-year debt offering.

Five bankers told Reuters on September 11 that the oil-to-telecommunications conglomerate has invited investors to submit bids for the bonds on Tuesday. The issue will carry an annual coupon of 7.47%, according to the bankers.

The planned transaction would mark Reliance Industries’ first rupee-denominated bond sale since November 2023, giving the company another avenue to raise capital as Ambani continues to expand the group across energy, telecommunications, retail and consumer businesses.

Reliance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the planned bond issue.

The 125 billion-rupee fundraising, equivalent to about $1.31 billion at the exchange rate cited by Reuters, represents a significant return to the domestic debt market for one of India’s largest corporate groups.

Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, has spent the past decade transforming the conglomerate beyond its traditional oil and petrochemicals base. Reliance has built major businesses in telecommunications through Jio and in retail, while continuing to invest in energy and consumer products.

The group’s financing needs have grown alongside that expansion. Reliance has continued to commit capital to new businesses and infrastructure, including its telecommunications and digital operations, as well as its broader consumer strategy.

The planned bond issue comes shortly after Reliance’s wider corporate ecosystem has attracted renewed attention from investors. Reliance Jio is also preparing for a major public offering, with Reuters reporting that the telecommunications arm is expected to seek billions of dollars in what could become one of India’s largest IPOs.

The latest bond sale, however, would be a direct fundraising by Reliance Industries itself.

The five-year maturity and 7.47% coupon provide investors with exposure to one of India’s largest companies while allowing Reliance to raise long-term domestic funding. The transaction also comes as Indian borrowing costs face pressure from rising oil prices and higher global bond yields.

India’s benchmark 10-year government bond yield climbed to 7.035% on Friday, according to a separate Reuters report, as markets responded to expectations that the Reserve Bank of India could use open-market bond sales and foreign-exchange swaps to manage excess liquidity.

Reliance’s return to the rupee bond market therefore comes against a changing interest-rate and liquidity backdrop in India.

For Ambani, whose fortune is tied closely to Reliance Industries, the transaction highlights the scale of capital required to support the group’s continued expansion. The company has increasingly positioned itself as a diversified technology, consumer and energy conglomerate rather than solely an oil and chemicals business.

If completed as planned, the 125 billion-rupee issue will be Reliance’s first rupee bond offering since 2023 and one of the company’s largest recent domestic debt raises.