S&P Global Ratings has affirmed Reliance Industries’ ‘A-’ long-term issuer credit rating with a stable outlook, citing resilient earnings, strong cash generation and improved funding flexibility following the listing of Jio Platforms.
New Delhi, November 4 — S&P Global Ratings has affirmed its ‘A-’ long-term issuer credit rating on Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and maintained a stable outlook, backed by expectations of strong earnings growth and disciplined leverage.
The rating agency expects RIL’s consolidated EBITDA to grow 19-23% to ₹2.15 lakh crore-₹2.25 lakh crore in FY27.
Its energy-related and digital services businesses are each expected to contribute close to 45% of the group’s EBITDA.
Reliance’s oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business is expected to be one of the major earnings drivers. S&P projects O2C EBITDA to increase 30-35% in FY27, supported by higher integrated refining margins.
The agency expects RIL’s O2C EBITDA per barrel to increase to about $18 in FY27 from nearly $14 in FY26.
Meanwhile, EBITDA from the digital services business is projected to grow 12-14%, driven by subscriber additions, higher average revenue per user and migration of Reliance Jio customers to premium plans.
S&P’s base-case projections do not assume any further telecom tariff increases.
The listing of Jio Platforms is also expected to strengthen Reliance’s funding flexibility.
According to S&P, the primary issuance of new Jio Platforms shares raised around ₹30,000 crore, equivalent to approximately 9% of RIL’s adjusted debt.
The capital infusion is expected to improve the group’s adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio to approximately 1.6 times in FY27.
S&P expects the ratio to remain between 1.6 and 1.8 times through FY28, even as annual capital expenditure increases to around ₹1.4 lakh crore-₹1.5 lakh crore, compared with approximately ₹1 lakh crore in FY26.
The rating agency identified artificial intelligence infrastructure, data centres and new energy as important areas for Reliance’s future expansion.
However, S&P noted that some of these investment plans remain at a preliminary stage and their eventual scale could be significant.
The stable outlook reflects expectations that Reliance will maintain strong market positions across its major businesses, increase cash generation and manage higher capital expenditure while keeping adjusted debt-to-EBITDA below 2 times over the next 12-24 months.
S&P said stronger business diversification and a sustained adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio below 1.5 times could support an improvement in the company’s credit profile.
