RIL to become debt-free in 2011: Ambani

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Corporate giant Reliance Industries’ chief Mukesh Ambani on Friday announced that the company would become debt-free in the current financial year.

Announcing a bullish stance on the company’s financial position, the chairman and MD said that RIL would become debt-free on a net basis in the current 2011-12 fiscal.

RIL had outstanding debt of67,397 crores ($15.1 billion) as of March 31, 2011, as against62,495 crores ($13.9 billion) a year ago.

At the same time, RIL had cash and cash-equivalents of42,393 crores ($9.5 billion) as on March 31 2011, which was nearly double the level seen a year ago.

These were mainly in fixed deposits, certificate of deposits with banks, mutual funds and government securities/ bonds.

Addressing the company’s shareholders at its 37th AGM here, Ambani said that RIL’s enterprise value stood at about $75 billion.

He said that RIL’s revenue has grown by 28 per cent on year-on-year basis over the past 33 years since its IPO, while profit and market capitalisation have grown by 33 per cent on an average every year during this period.