Reliance Industries holding company move

Is Reliance Industries on course to becoming a holding company? That was the question that observers asked as the company on Thursday announced that it will carve out the oil-to-chemicals business (O2C).

This comes even as RIL has already created a subsidiary — Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) — which consists of all its digital services business, including Jio. Market circles do not rule out the possibility of RIL hiving off Reliance Retail as well at a later date. If this is done, RIL could become a holding company.

RIL on Thursday announced that its board has approved a scheme of arrangement for the transfer of its O2C undertaking to Reliance O2C Ltd as a going concern on slump sale basis.