RCom to exit telecom biz completely, focus on real estate: Anil Ambani

At the 14th annual general meeting (AGM), Reliance Communications (RCom) chairman Anil Ambani bid adieu to the telecom business, owing to intense slugfest in the sector.

However, Ambani gave a ray of hope to shareholders. He unveiled a new source of redemption through development plans for the 133-acre Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in Navi Mumbai.

“As we have moved out of the mobile sector, we will monetise at an appropriate stage our enterprise business (which includes enterprise, data, submarine and long distance international voice calls). Reliance Realty (a subsidiary of RCom) will be the engine of growth for the future of this company. We are unlikely to have any telecom sector exposure in the long run,” he said.

Ambani addressed the shareholders of all group companies, including RCom, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, Reliance Capital, Home Finance and Nippon Life AMC in one go with a little more than hour allocated to each company. However, the overarching statement was that RCom is exiting the telecom business completely once the regulatory approvals for spectrum sales to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio receive clearance.

“At the end what matters for customers is the value proposition and I hope the current value proposition will remain and there will be no future tariff shocks as the industry consolidates because that will be detrimental to all consumers.” In response to queries on the future of 5G and capex requirement for telecom services, Ambani made it clear that these concerns have been so “challenging” that the company has decided not to proceed in this sector.