Asia’s richest man says ‘no option’ but to make businesses green

Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, plans to transform each of the units under his refining-to-retail conglomerate to create a sustainable business model as Reliance Industries Ltd.

The pivot toward a greener, cleaner version of itself won’t be an easy one for India’s most valuable company, which got about 60% of revenue from its hydrocarbon-fueled energy operations for the year ended March.

Ambani’s group bought its first cargo of carbon-neutral crude oil in February and said it was looking for more such partnerships.

The company already has a “proprietary technology to convert transportation fuels to valuable petrochemical and material building blocks,” Ambani told shareholders last year, adding that its focus will be on clean energy with hydrogen, wind, solar, fuel cells and batteries.

“Reliance can’t stay away” from this broader trend when even the traditionally oil-dependent economies including Saudi Arabia are boosting their green initiatives, according to Kranthi Bathini, chief market strategist at WealthMills Securities Pvt.

agreed last month to buy SoftBank Group Corp.’s $3.5 billion renewable power business in India, in a bid to achieve its goal of having 25 gigawatts of renewable power capacity by 2025.

“I believe this pandemic will not be the last health crisis that humanity has seen,” Ambani said in the interview.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., aims to close this access gap and boost connectivity, which according to Ambani is now akin to a basic need.

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