New Delhi, February 17
Under attack for poor showing of Reliance Power at the stock market after its listing on Monday last, Anil Ambani group today announced to consider free bonus shares for investors in the company and hit out at rivals for hammering down the shares of all the group companies.
Taking every body by surprise, the group firm Reliance Power said free shares would be for all the shareholders, excluding promoters who would accept dilution of their stake in the broader interest of over four million investors. A proposal for this would be considered at the board meeting of February 24, the company said.
At the same time, the company demanded a probe by market regulator SEBI into market
manipulation and market abuse through a vicious and orchestrated campaign “unleashed by unscrupulous rival corporate interests to hammer down all Reliance ADA group stocks”.
The unprecedented move comes a week after the dismal opening of Reliance Power at the stock exchanges. The scrip, after listing at Rs 547.8, slid into red within a minute and closed the day at Rs 372, a level much below the issue price.
After a fabulous response for the IPO that saw a demand of Rs 7,50,000 crore for the issue of Rs 11,560 crore, the listing-day blues had led to severe criticism of Anil Ambani.
The IPO was the maiden market venture after he created his own group in 2005, and was the worst ever opening for an Ambani IPO.
Informing the stock market about the proposal, Reliance Power said in a statement that the move was in keeping with the Reliance ADA Group’s fundamental and over-riding philosophy of creating value for genuine long-term investors and would thereby protect investors even from notional short-term losses on their shareholdings.
At the same time, the company said Reliance Power stock closing below the IPO price on the day of listing, February 11, 2008, was in line with the global trend.
The company said the free bonus shares would benefit over four million of its investors and the cost would be accepted by promoter group by way of diluting its shareholding.
Reliance Power said that the decline in its stock price has been compounded by an attempt to undermine the group’s name and reputation, while causing losses to millions of genuine investors.
— PTI
