Last checked at 
By Promit Mukherjee and Alexandra Ulmer
MUMBAI, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Reliance Industriessaid it would launch super-fast internet in India next month,stressing that partnerships would be its path to growth as itannounced a tie up with Microsoft and a stake sale in its oilunit to Saudi Aramco.
The group's plans to launch fibre broadband is likely toworry rivals who are struggling to keep up with Jio, billionaireChairman Mukesh Ambani's telco upstart, which has upended themarket with its cheap data plans and become India's top mobileoperator by subscribers in just three years.
The tech push and the planned stake sale comes as Reliance -India's second-biggest company by market value - looks tobolster its consumer businesses and diversify from its core oiland petrochemicals operations.
The cloud services partnership with Microsoft Corpunderscores Ambani's ambitions to go toe-to-toe with Amazon, which offers cloud services in India and is also oneof the country's biggest online retailers.
"We have received strong interest from strategic andfinancial investors in our consumer businesses, Jio and RelianceRetail," Ambani said in a statement for the company's annualgeneral meeting on Monday.
"We will induct leading global partners in these businessesin the next few quarters, and move towards listing of both thesecompanies within the next five years," he said.
The consumer-facing businesses collectively contributenearly a third of the company's consolidated EBITDA, Ambanisaid. Five years ago they contributed just 2% and Ambani expectsthem to account for 50% soon.
Ambani was joined by Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadellavia video conferencing for the AGM being held on a public andstock exchange holiday in India and many countries.
Microsoft and Jio will launch cloud data centres in India,the two executives said. Jio will provide free cloud servicesfor startups for as little as 1,500 rupees ($21) a month, whichAmbani said was less than one-tenth of global rates.
"The strategy continues to be to grab a lion's share of themarket ... by integrating several channels of entertainment andcommunication," said Hemant Joshi, a technology, media andtelecom consultant at Deloitte.
"They seem to be doing once again here in broadband whatthey have done earlier in telecom," he said.
Jio, which has over 340 million subscribers, said itsGigaFiber broadband services will include access to televisionchannels, fixed-line telephone calling and video conferencingwith prices starting at 700 rupees per month.
ZERO-DEBT BET
Ambani, Asia's richest man, said on Monday Reliance isplanning to sell a fifth of its oil-to-chemicals business toAramco in what would be one of the largest foreign investmentsin the country.
"We want to build transformative partnerships, whether it isthe kirana (grocery) merchants in the new commerce space, or inthe B2B space with giants like Aramco or BP," saidReliance's Executive Director PMS Prasad.
The company said earlier this month it would deepen its tieswith oil major BP in forming a fuel retailing joint venture.
The stake sale and plans to bring in more investors for itsconsumer businesses is part of Reliance's push to become a zeronet debt company, which Ambani said will happen by March 2021.
Reliance had outstanding debt of nearly $42 billion as ofJune 30, and cash and cash equivalents of roughly $18.5 billion.
The deal with Aramco, which values the business at $75billion including debt, also includes an agreement for Aramco tosell up to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) to Reliance's Jamnagarrefinery in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
($1 = 71.3257 Indian rupees)(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee, Alexandra Ulmer and Euan Rocha;Writing by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Himani Sarkar and DavidEvans)
