Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Thursday said the deal involving the world's largest oil producer Aramco picking up 20 percent stake in refinery business of the country's largest corporate house is on track with the Saudi entity continuing with its due diligence.

After declaring its quarterly earnings, which was better than what most analysts had been expecting, the company said it was on track to become zero debt ahead of its own aggressive deadline of March 2021.

Strong growth in the digital business and a steady performance in retail helped offset weakness in the traditional oil refining and petrochemical segments.

The company will be raising Rs 53,125 crore through a rights issue, the largest by an Indian company. This is also the first rights issue by the company in three decades.

Including the rights issue, the company expects to complete capital raising totaling over Rs 1.04 lakh crore during this quarter. This includes the Rs 43,547 crore investment by Facebook in Jio Platforms and the previous investment by British Petroleum in FY2019-20.

RIL's gross debt stands at Rs 3.36 lakh crore and it has cash and equivalents of Rs 1.75 lakh crore. Through the rights issue, Facebook and British Petroleum investments, it will be able to pare debt by Rs 1.04 lakh crore.

"In spite of the COVID-19 crisis and the lockdowns, the due-diligence by Saudi Aramco for the planned investment in the O2C business is on track as both the parties are committed and actively engaged,” the company said. This should help quell persistent market rumours that RIL’s deal with Aramco was facing hurdles.

"In addition to the Facebook investment, the board was informed that RIL has received strong interest from other strategic and financial investors and is in good shape to announce a similar sized investment in the coming months,” the company release said.

The Aramco deal and further investments in the digital business should help RIL further lower its debt. “With a strong visibility to these equity infusions, the board was informed that RIL is set to achieve net zero debt status ahead of its own aggressive timeline,” the company said.

First Published:Apr 30, 2020 10:55 PM IST