Reliance Industries is an Indian conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mumbai. Reliance owns businesses that engage in hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining, petrochemicals, retail and global digital services. Founded in 1966 by Dhirubhai Ambani and his cousin, Champaklal Damani, Reliance Industries Limited is the largest publicly traded company in India.
Reliance began as a synthetics engineering company and then expanded into textiles throughout the 70s and 80s. Its current name of Reliance Industries Ltd. was established in 1985. The company continued to diversify into other industries in the decades that followed, including petrochemicals and telecommunications in the 90s.
Large-scale oil, natural gas and power generation operations began in the 2000s. In 2004, Reliance became the first and only Indian private company to be listed on the Fortune Global 500 List.
In 2010, Reliance entered the broadband services market with its acquisition of Infotel Broadband Services Limited. In 2014, the company’s retail division became India’s largest retailer by revenue.
Reliance Industries Limited has 187,729 employees, revenues of over $62 billion and is India’s most valuable company in market value. The company remains family-run, with the son of its founder, Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, acting as Reliance’s current CEO.
- Family name: Ambani
- Sector: Oil & Gas
- Founded: 1966
- Founder: Dhirubhai Ambani and Champaklal Damani
- Country: India
- Company headquarters: Mumbai
- Managers: Mukesh Ambani
- Revenue: US$56.5 billion
- Rankings: 148 [Fortune 500]
- Family ownership: 45.2%
- Employees: 24,930
- Website: www.ril.com
