Rel Power has largest base of shareholders

Anil Ambani group's Reliance Power has become the country's biggest company in terms of the number of shareholders following the allotment of shares in its recently completed Rs 11,560 crore initial public offering.

Reliance Power, whose IPO ended on January 18 with a demand worth over Rs 7,50,000 crore and over-subscription of 73 times, has close to 42 lakh shareholders, the company said today after the allotment of shares.

This shareholder base is bigger than any other company currently listed on the Indian stock exchanges, according to the shareholding data filed with the bourses.

Reliance Power has taken over another group company, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) in terms of number of shareholders.

According to the latest information available with stock exchanges, RNRL had close to 22.3 lakh shareholders at the end of December 2007 quarter, followed by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries with close to 20.6 lakh shareholders.

Interestingly, seven top companies in terms of the number of shareholders belong to either of the groups led by two Ambani brothers.

While the top two companies "" Reliance Power and RNRL "" belong to Anil Ambani group, the third largest, RIL, and fifth largest, Reliance Petroleum (RPL) belong to the Mukesh Ambani group.

Anil Ambani group's Reliance Communications is the fourth largest with a shareholder base of about 19.8 lakh. RPL had close to 16.9 lakh shareholders as on December 31, 2007.

Besides, Anil Ambani group's Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital are sixth and seventh largest with 15.4 lakh and 12.5 lakh shareholders respectively.

Reliance Power's total shareholder base of about 42 lakh includes a large proportion of 41.7 lakh from the retail category.

The seven Reliance companies are followed by government- run PowerGrid (PGCIL) at the eighth position (9.5 lakh), Adani group's Mundra Port & SEZ at ninth (8.1 lakh) and Tata group's TCS (7.35 lakh) at the tenth position.

Other companies in the top 20 include PSU power major NTPC (7.1 lakh shareholders), ICICI Bank (6.8 lakh), IFCI (6.4 lakh), Tata Steel (6 lakh), MRPL (5.5 lakh), Infosys (5.4 lakh), SBI (5.4 lakh), JSW Steel (5.2 lakh), Larsen and Toubro (4.95 lakh), Ispat Industries (4.89 lakh) and Tata Teleservices (4.6 lakh).

Reliance Power today said it has allotted shares to 41.7 lakh retail investors, while 12,000 non-institutional investors have also been given shares in the IPO. Besides, it has allotted shares to 446 domestic and international QIBs.

About 4.5 lakh retail investors could not get any shares in the IPO as their bids were for less than 225 shares each "" the benchmark approved for the allocation purpose after the book building process.

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NEW RECORD

RELIANCE POWER has close to 42 lakh shareholders

SEVEN TOP firms in terms of the number of shareholders belong to either of the groups led by two Ambani brothers

WHILE THE top two companies "" Reliance Power and RNRL "" belong to Anil Ambani group, the third largest, RIL, and fifth largest, Reliance Petroleum (RPL) belong to the Mukesh Ambani group