RIL RIGHTS ISSUE SUBSCRIBED 1.6X ON FINAL DAY

MUMBAI:THE ₹ 53,125-crore rights issue of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was subscribed 1.6 times as it closed on Wednesday, in a major boost to the oil-to-telecom conglomerate’s efforts to trim its debt. The issue opened for subscription on May 20 along with a simultaneous rights entitlement (RIL RE) platform, wherein for the first-time ever in India, shareholders could freely trade their rights entitlement on a stock exchange.

“The rights issue saw a huge investor interest, including from lakhs of retail investors and thousands of institutional investors, both Indian and foreign. The public portion of the rights issue was subscribed 1.22 times,” RIL said in a statement. The equity shares will be allotted on or about June 10 and the rights shares are expected to be listed on the BSE and NSE on or around June 12, the statement said.

RIL’S rights issue, its first-ever in nearly three decades, is the largest such share sale in the history of Indian equity markets.

According to stock exchange data, the rights priced at ₹1,257 per share received bids for 551.30 million shares on BSE and 120.29 million shares on NSE.

Shares of RIL closed 0.41% higher at ₹1542.45 on Wednesday. Since the rights issue opened, the stock has risen 9.42% while it has gained only 2.79% this fiscal/calendar year so far. The price of rights entitlement (RIL RE) surged 46.7% in seven trading sessions on the special platform allowed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India before closing on Friday.

The rights issue saw oversubscription as there was robust demand from both RIL promoters and public shareholders, said two people aware of the development, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Most large public shareholders including LIC subscribed to shares. Index funds, who can’t hold partly paid-up shares, had sold their rights entitlement using the platform,” said one of the people cited above.