Anil Ambani to spell out defence business plans

Pitching defence business as the main growth driver, industrialist Anil Ambani will brief the sectoral and market analysts here tomorrow about future plans of his Reliance Group in this segment.

This is the first time ever that Ambani or his group firm Reliance infrastructure is hosting an analyst meet for defence business. In a brief notification to the stock exchanges, Reliance Infra said the meet is being held to give an update on the group's defence business.

The group officials said Ambani, the group Chairman, will himself interact with the analysts on the defence business and brief them about its future plans and how the defence business is going to be the main growth driver for the group in the years to come.

Almost 100 analysts from Mumbai and Delhi are likely to attend this meet, they added. While defence is the latest key business for Anil Ambani-led group, it is also present in financial services, telecom, power and other infrastructure sectors.

The Reliance Group's defence play started with the acquisition of Gujarat-based Pipavav Shipyard about two years ago. This remains the largest acquisition in the defence sector in India so far. Pipavav Shipyard has now been renamed as Reliance Defence and Engineering Ltd (RDEL). It owns the largest dry dock in the country.

Recently, the Reliance Group also entered into a joint venture with Dassault Aviation of France to execute the largest offset obligation against the 36 Rafale fighter jets bought by India. For this, the company is setting up manufacturing facilities in Mihan SEZ in Nagpur.