The Hindu Business Line : Reliance group demerger scheme put to vote

THE final results of the voting on the scheme of arrangement between Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Reliance Energy Ventures Ltd, Global Fuel Management Services Ltd, Reliance Capital Ventures Ltd and Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd will be announced after the same is filed with the High Court on October 24, the company said on Friday.

The extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the company held as per the direction of the High Court in Mumbai under the chairmanship of Justice (retired) Mr M.L. Pendse saw the receipt of proxies and authorisations for 90.7-crore equity shares of Rs 10 each of the company.

A company release here said separate meetings of the secured creditors (including debenture-holders) and unsecured creditors of RIL were also held under the chairmanship of Justice Mr Pendse.

Majority of the shareholders of RIL, including proxies and authorisations, are understood to have voted in favour of the scheme of arrangement.

Under the scheme, a shareholder having one RIL share would be entitled to get one share each in all four new entities sought to be created.

Media left out: For the media that camped outside the venue in large numbers, today's outing turned out to be largely a frustrating exercise as it was decided by Mr Pendse that the EGM would not have any media attendance.

In the absence of any official statement following the EGM, the media had to fall back on the shareholders for their version on what transpired during the meeting.

While some shareholders were forthcoming, others were coy, just as some others were downright uncommunicative, posing questions like what would be their gain from talking to presspersons.

Shareholders' view: According to Mr Rajnikant C. Shah, who owns 2,000 RIL shares, there was hardly any reason for the shareholders to be unhappy. For him, the net gain would come in the form of 2,000 shares each in the four new companies, though it could always be open to debate whether the valuation of assets was done in a manner to benefit the shareholders.

"By and large, a majority of the shareholders were happy as we were getting additional shares in the four new companies. However, there were questions raised by some about the transparency of the asset valuation by the company", he said.

This was the general mood of the shareholders whether it was Mr M.R. Jinnah with 180 RIL shares, Mr D.H. Patel with 500 shares or Mr Vasant Dhage with only 45 shares. They felt that whatever the company was giving in the form of shares in the new entities was good but they were not sure whether the company could have given more.

However, lost somewhere in the din of new labels like Reliance Energy Ventures Ltd, Global Fuel Management Services Ltd, Reliance Capital Ventures Ltd and Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd and share swap arrangement for the RIL shareholder was the fact that all this actually represented a carving up of assets and liabilities in the Reliance group between the two Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil.

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