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-   -   Reliance & BP partner to set up fuel retail business in India (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/211891-reliance-bp-partner-set-up-fuel-retail-business-india.html)

According to media reports, Reliance Industries and BP will be setting up a fuel retail business in India. The two companies will form a 51:49 joint venture and plan to set up 5,500 fuel stations in the next 5 years. A fuel home delivery service will also be offered.



Earlier this week, Reliance Industries and the BP Group signed an agreement formalizing the joint venture. The final agreement will reportedly be signed later this year. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2020.

At the moment, Reliance operates more than 1,400 fuel stations in India. BP, which has a stake in Reliance Industries had already received a licence to operate fuel stations in India three years ago.

Source: Economic Times

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I thought we are going full electric in 11 years ?! Does this investment makes business sense now ? ( I know Mukesh will not mind spending few Thousand crores, but still )

I think Reliance is in damage control mode by sharing half of his future retail loss with BP.

Won't take long to convert the entire lot to charging stations with solar panels overnight.

Real estate is key. And so is branding. That's probably what these guys are after.

Tesla Trucks are still a couple of Years away :) There is a lot of demand for Trucks/ Buses besides the cars and nothing is going to get converted so fast especially here in India.

Besides this Man is far more intelligent than any of us here, so let's hope they expand and we can get unadulterated fuel and maybe 97 Octane:D

:thumbs up Exactly.

Not only BP, some days back there were talks of the world’s biggest oil producer ARAMCO planning to acquire 20% stake in Reliance, there seems some disagreements in valuation but talks are still on (source). In another news, ARAMCO is partnering with IOCL, BPCL and HPCL to build a $44-billion refinery- petrochemicals complex. They are also seeking entry into fuel retailing in India. (Source)

These oil giants are not here for pea nuts. In fact these are encouraging developments because Reliance is opening up to include foreign players in the gear up for bigger game. Also this will bring significant foreign investment i.e. stronger INR.

Analysts say, the present slump in Auto sector is driven largely because of reluctant lending by shadow banks (piling bad loans). When Banking/Financing niggles are ironed out and the ongoing talks with the Government brings tax cuts, the auto sector should spring back on track.

IC engines are not going anywhere at-least in the next 2-decades. We might see PV migration to electric in the next 10-15 years but CVs will still be diesel.

Besides all this, as someone has already pointed, it is about the land bank. Fuel stations will be converted to charging stations when the need arises.

That is what BP is doing in UK. In 2018, they acquired the Chargemaster. Chargemaster runs UK's largest EV charging network named Polar which has 7,000 charging points including 400 rapid charging points (50KW or more).

https://bpchargemaster.com/polar/

While EVs are yet to make a dent in fuel sales in India, I still find it strange that Reliance is planning to setup more than 3 times of their existing count.

This is certainly to buy valuable real estate and convert them into charging stations later.

As suspected, Big news,

Reliance to sell 20% stake in oil-to-chemicals biz to Saudi Aramco at a whopping $75 bn enterprise value.

That would be one of the biggest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) deal in the country.

Source

More news: https://www.livemint.com/companies/n...063061734.html