ADAG's m-cap set to cross $100 bn

Group set to become the second largest Indian corporate in terms of market value.

A day after the initial share sale of Reliance Power created history in the Indian IPO market, a bullish Anil Ambani said the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) is set to become the second largest Indian corporate house in terms of market value, just below elder brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries.

This is after taking into consideration the market value of Reliance Power.

The power company has been valued at Rs 101,700 crore, or $25.88 billion, based on Rs 450 a share, the upper end of the IPO band, Ambani said at a crowded press conference today.

The listing of the company is expected in the first week of February.

The Reliance Industries group, owned by Mukesh Ambani, is valued at Rs 5,04,316 crore ($ 128.4 billion). The Tata group with a valuation of Rs 2,86,488 crore ($72.9 billion) is now the second biggest corporate group in India.

Asked if he would beat his brother to become India's richest man, post the RPL listing, Ambani quipped: "As per the Indian tradition, the elder brother should always be in the front."

RPL's mega IPO saw record subscriptions of Rs 7,50,000 crore ($190 billion). Ambani said his group's market capitalisation will cross Rs 3,94,409 crore ($100 billion) by taking into account the m-cap of Reliance Power at the IPO price.

The $100 billion plus valuation is a significant achievement considering that the group was valued at just (Rs 16,000 crore ($4 billion) in June 2005, when the Reliance Group was demerged.

Meanwhile, sources said the mega Rs 11,563 crore IPO saw big names including George Soros's Quantum, Indian insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan submitting bids worth $1.6 billion each.

There was participation from nearly 500 domestic and international qualified institutional bidders.

"The IPO saw some of the biggest banks and funds submitting bids. But, we cannot reveal any names at this moment as we are still in the quiet period," Ambani said.

Another highlight of the IPO was the subscription numbers of retail investors. Though the Sensex fell by 8.3 percent, the IPO saw a record 5 million retail investors submitting bids.

This is more than half the total number of demat account holders in India. The retail investors have submitted bids worth Rs 44,000 crore.

"My dream was to offer shares only to the retail investors. If I had done so, the small investors alone would have subscribed four times the full IPO size," he said. This could be the largest number of applications in any IPO in the world, Ambani said.

Ambani said the Reliance Power IPO subscriptions were greater than combined top 5 IPOs in India. It was also the largest IPO in the Asia Pacific power sector.

JM Financial, which secured bids worth $30.9 billion, leads the chart for collecting maximum amount of bids, followed by Enam Financial ($28.92 billion), Kotak Mahindra ($15.64 billion), Deutsche Bank ($ 13.9 billion) and UBS ($12.5 billion).