...SINGAPORE (S&P Global Ratings) June 23, 2017--S&P Global Ratings said today that Reliance Industries Ltd.'s (RIL; ###+/Stable/--) plan to invest in deep-water gas field development and production is credit neutral. These investments will slightly delay RIL's deleveraging. Any meaningful improvement in the leverage ratio will depend on stronger cash flow from new projects in refining and petrochemical as well as the company's telecom business generating meaningful EBITDA in fiscal (year ending March 31) 2018 and thereafter. RIL recently announced its plans to invest Indian rupees (INR) 400 billion (about US$6.0 billion) through a joint venture with BP PLC (BP; A-/Stable/A-2) to develop three gas fields in the KGD6 block. RIL's debt-to-EBITDA ratio at 3.3x as of fiscal 2017 is above our expectation of sustainably below 2.5x for the rating, but we anticipate the ratio to improve to below 2.0x on the back of EBITDA growth from the petrochemical and refining segments. When the new projects are...
