Reliance Industries, Dassault Sign Deal for Defense Projects

(Bloomberg) :  Reliance Industries Ltd., owner of the world’s biggest oil refining complex, and Dassault Aviation SA have signed an agreement to explore defense projects jointly, an official at the Indian company said.

“We’ve signed a preliminary agreement with Dassault broadly in the defense sector,” Tushar Pania, Reliance’s spokesman said in a telephone interview, after the Press Trust of India earlier reported the deal.

Dassault emerged last month as the lowest bidder to supply 126 fighter jets to the Indian Air Force, and entered into an exclusive negotiation with the South Asian country’s government over its Rafale planes.

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries reported on Jan. 20 its first quarterly profit drop in two years as margins for crude-oil refining sank to the lowest in eight quarters.