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Our Bureau

New Delhi, March 18 The Government on Tuesday confirmed in the Rajya Sabha that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was looking into the alleged insider trading activities in the shares of Reliance Petroleum Ltd.

“SEBI has informed that it has initiated an examination in the matter”, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of State for Finance, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

This reply came in response to the Samajwadi Party MP, Mr Amar Singh’s question on whether the Government had taken any action against the promoters/affiliates of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) regarding the “recent mammoth insider trading” activities in the shares of Reliance Petroleum Ltd.

SEBI declined to comment on the matter. However, RIL issued a press statement in response to the Minister’s written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

“Reliance Industries Ltd and its group companies have complied with all rules and regulations and will co-operate and provide all the necessary information to the concerned authorities.”

As on December 31, 2007, RIL’s shareholding in Reliance Petroleum stood at 70.38 per cent. Reliance Petroleum had on November 23 last year announced that RIL had sold 18.04 crore shares in the subsidiary, representing 4.01 per cent of the equity share capital of Reliance Petroleum, for Rs 4,023 crore. After this sale, the shareholding of RIL in RPL came down to 70.99 per cent.

This stake sale and the timing of its announcement had brought to the fore the regulatory aspect of present time limits of disclosure being somewhat of an “overkill” when the country had strong IT and telecom network.

It was contended in certain quarters that the RIL stake sale in Reliance Petroleum could have come into the public domain much earlier than it actually did but for the present norms on timing of disclosure on significant changes in ownership.

More Stories on : Stocks | Economic Offences | Reliance Petroleum Ltd | Petroleum

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