The Hindu : Business : RIL gets SEBI clearance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 11, 2005

Business

Business

RIL gets SEBI clearance

MUMBAI, JAN. 10. Reliance Industries' programme to buy back its shares, which was decided at the December 27 board meeting in the face of opposition from RIL's Vice Chairman, Anil Ambani, has received the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), subject to certain disclosures to shareholders.

"We have directed Reliance Industries to make certain disclosures regarding their buyback programme," G. N. Bajpai, the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India, told PTI here today. Mr. Bajpai's comments came even as RIL disclosed in newspaper advertisements that four companies — Reliance Polyolefins Pvt. Ltd, Reliance Aromatics and Petrochemcials Pvt. Ltd, Reliance Energy and Project Development Pvt. Ltd and Reliance Chemicals Pvt. Ltd — held 4.7 per cent equity share in RIL, headed by Mukesh Ambani, the elder of the Ambani brothers, and were listed as Persons Acting in Concert (PAC).

"It is, therefore, baseless to allege that there has been any intention of the management of RIL to divert the benefits of these assets to the promoters," RIL said in its advertisement.

The advertisement, aimed at giving a correct picture in the face of a spate of news reports, on the day the buyback programme kicks off, said, "The economic benefits of RIL shares held by these four companies have always been for the benefit of RIL's shareholders, and remain so."

Kicks off buyback plan

Reliance Industries today kicked off its buyback programme, purchasing over six lakh shares for about Rs. 34 crores but could not enthuse the market as the company's scrips plunged by over Rs. 7 to close at Rs. 533. The buyback, coming after weeks of public feud between the two Ambani brothers over ownership issues of Reliance empire, was at an average price of Rs. 539.62, RIL informed the Bombay Stock exchange at the end of the trading session.

— PTI

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