Reliance Industries (RIL), which owns the world’s largest refinery, appears to be making a shift towards consumer businesses, while Saudi Arabia has been taking conscious steps towards de-linking its economy from oil.
The two strategies–one corporate and the other national–could find a point of convergence to make way for an RIL-Saudi Aramco deal, news reports suggest. Aramco is a Saudi-owned petroleum company, which Bloomberg recently reported to be the most profitable in the world.
According to a Times of India report, serious discussions are on between the two companies for a 25 per cent stake in RIL’s refining and petrochemicals business. The report pegged the value of the deal at $10-$15 billion. RIL declined to comment on the reports.
