INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - MAY 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

FIIS & FIS CORNER 5.6% OF RELIANCE PETROLEUM IPO

 LEADING FIIs Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and large domestic institutional investors such as LIC, SBI have together secured a 5.6% stake in the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Petroleum (RPL) which made an IPO last month. According to a shareholding pattern of RPL filed with the BSE ahead of listing of the company's shares, the promoters, that is Reliance Industries and Chevron, hold a significant 80% in the company. Of this, about 75% is held by RIL and Chevron holds the rest.

RPL's shares will be listed on stock exchanges from May 11 and will be traded in high-profit specified section (A group) of the BSE. RPL has filed the shareholding pattern according to the revised SEBI format on reporting of public shareholding. Total institutional holding, as shown as part of public holding, is 14.2%. It includes 4.5% stake held by financial institutions and banks, 7% by FIIs, 1.8% by insurance companies and 0.8% by mutual funds.

Under the non-institutional public holding, the corporate bodies hold 2.5%. Among individual shareholders, those holding shares with value upto Rs 1 lakh accounted for a 3% while others with holdings in excess of Rs 1 lakh accounted for 0.3% of RPL's post-IPO equity capital of 450 crore shares. RPL had offered 45 crore shares to the public through its IPO which opened on April 13 and closed on April 20. The new issue proceeds would be used to part finance the company's upcoming Rs 27,000-crore refinery project at Jamnagar in Gujarat. The company has fixed offer price at Rs 60 per share. Of the total 180 crore shares that were on offer, RPL had in early April raised Rs 2,700 crore through a pre-IPO placement made to foreign funds, financial institutions and banks at Rs 60 a share. The initial public offer was subscribed 51.5 times the issue size. The QIB portion was subscribed 68.2 times, while that of HNIs by 60 times. The retail portion was oversubscribed by 15.2 times.