India’s Reliance Group said on Monday it had tied up with Dassault Aviation SA to help the French company spend up to 300 billion Indian rupees ($4.51 billion) that it must invest in India as part of a recent Rafale fighter jet deal it clinched.
India, the world’s largest arms importer, requires foreign defence companies to invest a percentage of the value of deals that they have been awarded into India to help the country build its own manufacturing base and wean itself off imports.
Dassault agreed to invest 50 per cent in so-called offsets of the $8.7 billion deal it signed with New Delhi on Sept 23 to supply 36 of its Rafale fighter jets. Reliance said the offset contract is India’s biggest ever.
Billionaire Anil Ambani, whose Reliance has virtually no experience in defence manufacturing, hopes to turn his company into a major defence firm over the coming years.
The agreement with Dassault is a bet that Reliance can build manufacturing facilities at a site in the central Indian city of Nagpur to feed into Dassault’s supply chain, or for future Indian government orders of the Rafale jet.
A person familiar with the agreement said part of the INR300bn in offsets would be spent directly on Reliance manufactured products, and part would be spent through other Indian manufacturers, depending on which company could best carry out the work. The person was not authorised to speak to the media about the agreement and so declined to be identified.
“The formation of this Joint venture with Reliance Aerospace led by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group illustrates our strong commitment to establishing ourselves in India and to develop strategic industrial partnerships under the ‘Make in India’ policy promoted by the Indian Government,” Dassault Chief Executive Eric Trappier said in a statement.
Senior executives told media in May that Reliance had bid for INR840bn in government contracts, but was yet to win any.
Other Indian companies with an interest in defence and aerospace include Tata Group, Mahindra Group and Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
