Anil Ambani group’s mutual fund house trusts Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to be of great investment value, but the Mukesh Ambani-led firm appears to have no interest in the largest fund house Reliance Mutual Fund.
More than a dozen schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund, a part of Anil Ambani group’s financial services’ arm, Reliance Capital, have invested heavily in RIL. Also, RIL is the single largest equity investment for at least five Reliance Mutual Fund schemes.
RIL, the top valued corporate entity in the country’s stock market, has investments in various schemes belonging to about two dozen fund houses, but none with the largest fund house, Reliance Mutual Fund, which is part of his younger brother Anil’s group.
In its latest annual report for 2008-09, RIL has disclosed investments in over 60 mutual fund schemes, which belong to about 25 various fund houses including ICICI Prudential, SBI Mutual Fund, LIC Mutual Fund, DSP Blackrock and even the new players like Religare and Mirae Asset MFs.
However, not a single Reliance MF scheme figures among the mutual fund investments of RIL, which is engaged in a long-running gas supply dispute with Anil Ambani group firm, RNRL, the case currently being heard in the Supreme Court.
In contrast, the portfolios of almost all the equity-investing Reliance MF schemes have RIL as one of their top 10 holdings as on September 30, 2009.
These include top-performing schemes like Reliance Growth Fund, Reliance Vision Fund, NRI Equity Fund, Diversified Power Sector Fund, Infrastructure Fund, Regular Savings Fund, Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS), Equity Fund, Natural Resources Fund and Equity Advantage Fund.
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Besides, RIL is the single largest equity holding for as many as five Reliance MF schemes — namely Reliance Regular Savings (Equity option), Reliance Equity Fund, Reliance Equity Advantage Fund, Reliance Natural Resources Fund and Reliance Quant Plus Fund (formerly known as Reliance Index Fund).
The RIL holding of these mutual fund schemes is as high as close to 10 per cent and more than 5 per cent for about seven schemes.
In its annual report of 2008-09, Reliance Capital had also disclosed exiting RIL entirely by offloading an investment worth Rs 129.88 crore in the shares of the country’s most valued firm.
At the end of 2008-09, R-Cap’s holding of RIL shares was nil against 74,85,295 shares valued at Rs 129.88 crore as on March 31, 2008. These shares accounted for just about 0.5 per cent of RIL, but at the current market price of over Rs 2,000 a share, it would have been worth over Rs 1,500 crore.
According to its balance sheet, RIL is the only listed company whose equity shares were fully offloaded by R-Cap in 2008-09.
However, R-Cap continues to hold a little over 1 per cent stake in another Mukesh Ambani group firm, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL).
Reliance Capital continues to hold 160,100 equity shares of RIIL valued at Rs 50 lakh as on March 31, 2009. R-Cap’s holding accounts for a 1.06 per cent stake in RIIL, which at the current market price of Rs 987.40 a share would be worth about Rs 15 crore.