The Hindu Business Line : No plans for berth on RIL board now: LIC chief <br>`Crisis will not impact investments'

EXUDING confidence that the storm hitting the Reliance empire will blow away soon, the largest institutional shareholder in Reliance Industries Ltd - the Life Insurance Corporation - today said that it had no immediate plans to intervene in the matter by pressing for a representation on the board of directors of the company.

"We are watching the developments. At the moment we have no plans to ask for a seat on the RIL board," the Chairman of LIC, Mr R.N. Bhardwaj, told Business Line.

He said that there was also no immediate concern on the huge equity investments that LIC has in RIL. "RIL is a well-managed company. We don't feel that the RIL controversy would have any major impact on our investments," Mr Bhardwaj said.

He said that informal discussions have been held by the insurance major with other institutional shareholders including General Insurance Corporation and the Unit Trust of India on the RIL imbroglio. "We (the institutions) are confident that the problem will blow over," Mr Bhardwaj said.

The Reliance group has been hitting the headlines for the past couple of weeks on account of the dispute between the brothers - Mr Mukesh Ambani and Mr Anil Ambani - on "ownership issues" of the Rs 90,000-crore empire.

The LIC Chairman hinted that it would be tough for the institutions to ask for a seat on the company's board with their combined shareholding being less than 10 per cent. While LIC has a shareholding of around 4.4 per cent in RIL, the combined FI stake is below 7 per cent. "Generally, nobody seeks a board seat if the shareholding is below 10 per cent," Mr Bhardwaj said.

However, he did not completely rule out the possibility of the institutions pressing for a representation on the RIL board at a later date should things worsen within the group. "If the situation at any time warrants us to explore the option of asking for a board representation we would certainly look at it at that time. But once again, there is no such move contemplated at present," he said.

Meanwhile, a PTI report has quoted a Reliance spokesperson saying that the issue of FIs having a seat on the RIL board was not discussed by Mr Mukesh Ambani when he met the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, last Saturday.

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