RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL): Leading global financial brokerage firm - CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, while maintaining it’s ‘BUY’ rating on the Mukesh Ambani-owned petrochemicals-led country’s biggest diversified business conglomerate giant’s stock, has raised it’s target-price (TP) to Rs 2,010/share - from Rs 1,710/share previously, after it’s telecom/digital-operations arm/subsidiary - Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) announced tariff hikes of up-to 35%, which is likely to boost it’s operating profit by U$D 1.10-1.30 bln. CLSA said that Jio’s tariffs remain at a 7-20% discount to it’s competitors - which will help RIL’s telecom arm maintain it’s strong relative positioning. CLSA expects RIL’s enterprise-value (EV) to inch near U$D 200 bln - by March 2021. The closure of the fibre & Aramco deal, the start of the pet-coke gasification project, launch of it’s ‘New Commerce’ business in retail, and any progress on stake-sales in the digital business - are other triggers, CLSA said.
Besides CLSA, leading US-based multi-national investment bank/global brokerage firm - Goldman Sachs too raised it’s TP on the RIL stock - to Rs 1,850/share from Rs 1,635/share, while maintaining a ‘BUY’ rating. The brokerage said it was upbeat about RIL - in view of the higher average revenue per user (ARPU) from potential tariff increases, coupled with continued strong subscriber addition momentum.
CLSA’s target-price (TP) on the RIL stock - is the highest among 37 brokerages tracking the stock. Bloomberg data showed 29 analysts have ‘BUY’ ratings on the RIL stock, 6 have ‘HOLD’ ratings, & a miniscule 2 have ‘SELL’ recommendations.