News: Wagonwheel whirls at Mukesh flagship

(DNA 12/04/2006) Mumbai - A tectonic shift in the shareholding pattern of Reliance Industries Ltd has seen a drastic downsizing of promoter entities in India’s largest private sector company.

The overhaul cut the number of entities acting in concert with the promoters to one-sixth of the original size of 92 to 16 firms during the quarter under review ending March 31, 2006.

However, the individuals and bodies corporate among the promoters that make a separate list reveals that the number hasn’t changed except for a few new names appearing in the list replacing the older names. The number under that category is unchanged at 32.

Reliance Industries has been traditionally controlled by a web of investment companies, that includes a long list of persons and firms acting in concert with the promoters.

That the drastic restructuring of the ownership pattern by shovelling much of the promoter shareholding into fewer firms reveals that complex overhauling initiated early this year has been completed. The lesser number of investment firms reveal that it’s a more transparent form of owning shares by the promoter.

Not surprisingly, the March-end shareholding pattern reveals that the Anil Ambani family shareholding is no longer counted among the promoter holdings. Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director who holds the reins of RIL, has pared his personal holding during the period. The shares held under his name have seen 50,000 shares less for the quarter ended March 31, 2006.

It comes around the same time when the largest private sector company is completely under his control, as the division of assets of RIL group has finally seen the light of the day.

Family matriarch Kokilaben continues to hold the same number of shares in the company, while Nita Ambani, Mukesh’s wife, Isha his daughter and Akash, his son hold the same percentage of shares each, i.e, 0.12% of RIL’s equity. Simultaneously, his youngest son Hari Anant M Ambani is the new name that’s appearing among the list of promoter individual shareholders.

The rest of the individual promoters have more or less retained their shares in the company.

Along with Anil and Tina Ambani and their two sons, the Ambani sisters -Dipti Salgaokar and Nina Kothari and their spouses disappeared from the current list of individual promoter shareholders.

However, several new names figure in the bodies/corporate counted as promoters and they include Sanatan Textrade, Anumati Mercantile, Pam Investments Rajlaxmi Securities and Fiely Investments.

Not surprisingly, some names that don’t figure in the list are Reliance Capital Ltd which is now firmly controlled by Anil Ambani’s Reliance-ADAG group.

It may still be that the promoter family members whose names do not appear in the list still own shares in the company, but do not feature in the promoters category anymore.