Promoters hold 5.13% in Reliance

Petroleum Trust's 7.5% stake falls in the 'persons acting in concert' category.

Have the Ambanis been claiming as promoter's shares what does not belong to them? A senior Reliance group executive admitted to Business Standard that the 7.50 per cent stake in Reliance Industries held by the Petroleum Trust is not part of the promoters' holdings.

But this shareholding is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange web site as being part of the promoters' holding.

The senior Reliance group executive said: "The Petroleum Trust's holding should not be considered to be part of the promoters' holding. If the trust's holding is shown to be part of the promoters' holding on the BSE website, that is the responsibility of the BSE. However, if the Reliance Industries annual report says this, I must say that this is a mistake."

One outcome of this is that the promoters' holding in Reliance Industries is not 12.63 per cent but 5.13 per cent. The Petroleum Trust's 7.50 per cent will fall in the "persons acting in concert" category.

When contacted, a BSE spokesman said: "We put whatever the company gave us on the website." The Reliance Industries annual report merely states that Reliance Industrial Investments & Holdings, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is the "sole beneficiary of (the) Petroleum Trust".

The shareholding pattern of Reliance Industries filed with the BSE and posted on its website at the end of September 2004 lists the 7.50 per cent stake the Petroleum Trust holds as part of the promoters' holding in Reliance Industries.

The promoters held only a 6.51 per cent stake in Reliance Industries at the end of the quarter ended September 2002.

But by the quarter ended December 31, 2002 (that is, after the merger of Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industries was formalised), the holdings went up to 12.44 per cent, including the block of 7.50 per cent shares in Reliance Industries held by the trust.