"There are 40 polyester units in the country. We have taken over three of them and 37 remain," he quipped when asked how the company intended to go about its growth plans. During the year Reliance acquired control over two polyester manufacturing facilities, the Orissa Synthetics of the JK Corp and India Polyfibres which added 65,000 tonnes capacity to its already sizable production of six lakh tonnes during the year.

The company commanded a 45 per cent share of the domestic polyester market during the year in which its production volume increased 26 per cent significantly higher than the 16 per cent growth achieved by the industry in general.

The rest of the industry today is fragmented and disorganised and Reliance has chosen to strengthen its market leadership and improve itscompetitive structure to create shareholder value by acquiring some of the players, Ambani maintained.

Asked why the company had zeroed in only on the polyester segment, he indicated it was not averse to exploring acquisition possibilities in other areas of the petrochemicals sector too.

However, there are opportunities only in the polyester sector with IPCL perhaps being the only possibility that Reliance can look for in the plastics segment. And we will definitely have a go at it as and when it comes up for offer, he said.

Asked on the company's moves to buy into some of the prize PSUs which are expected to come up for offer, Ambani stressed there was no agreed forward path on the public sector acquisitions. "We will look at them as they come", he said commenting on the various reports of the company's interest in some of the PSUs.

However, the country's largest petrochemical player was definitely keen on acquiring "crude equity", Ambani revealed. "We will clearly look at the next round of oil andgas exploration projects which will come up for offer soon", he said.

The government is expected to put up 48 blocks for bidding which are being eyed eagerly by various large players including ONGC, IOC, GAIL and multinationals like Cheveron and Unocal.

Picking up crude equity would give us an edge either by way of trade or swap deals for continued supplies for the 6 lakh tonne per annum capacity Jamnagar petrochemicals complex which has a requirement of 550 million barrels of crude per day when commissioned completely.