With $20 billion weapon, Mukesh Ambani just disrupted NBFC hierarchy

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Mukesh Ambani, the king of disruption, is at it once again. Just when Bajaj Finance became India's most valued NBFC following a $40 billion reverse merger of HDFC with HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries (RIL) has already fired a $20 billion salvo to change the pecking order in the world of shadow lenders. Following a demerger from incubator RIL, Jio Financial Services (JFSL) has already occupied the No.2 slot in the list of India's largest NBFCs by market capitalisation at Rs 1.66 lakh crore or about $20.3 billion.

Bajaj Finance now has a market cap of Rs 4.6 lakh crore. Upon listing on stock exchanges, JFSL will take over the No.2 slot ahead of Cholamandalam Investment and Finance which is presently the second-largest NBFC with an m-cap of Rs 9.6 lakh crore. JFSL will now be bigger than Bajaj Holdings & Investment, which is a holding company, SBI Cards, Shriram Finance, Muthoot Finance and even fintech payments platform Paytm.

Ambani's new chocolate boy is now the 32nd most valued company in India, bigger than giants like Tata Steel, Coal India, HDFC Life and SBI Life. The value of JFSL was derived in a special pre-open session today in shares of RIL. The stock's pre-listing price came out to be Rs 261.85 per share.What is Ambani's gameplan for JFSL?By bringing ex-ICICI executives KV Kamath and Hitesh Sethi along with daughter Isha Ambani, the billionaire has his dream team already in place to disrupt NBFCs by adopting a digital-first approach.