RIL may fix Rs 550-555/share for buyback

The Reliance Industries Board is likely to fix tomorrow a price of around Rs 550 a share for the proposed buyback of the company's equity that had slipped sharply in the last one month following the feud between Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil.

RIL had announced earlier this week convening a Board meeting on December 27 to consider a proposal to buyback shares from the market aimed at curbing wild speculation in its scrip, which has a significant weight of 11.7% in the sensitive BSE index of 30 bluechip companies.

Plummeting from the level of about Rs 545 per share at the time the row over the owernship of Rs 900 billion erupted on November 18, RIL scrip had slid to Rs 487 a share, reflecting an erosion of upto Rs 90 billion in terms of market capital.

According to market analysts, the buyback price could be above the level of ruling RIL share prices before the family feud became public.

The announcement of RIL board meeting on Monday at the flagship company's headquarters in Mumbai had reversed the trend and the scrip closed the week yesterday at Rs 523 a share.

RIL would fund the buyback from its reserves of over Rs 300 billion and the quantum of buyback would be decided at the Monday's board meeting. As per the law, a company could buyback upto 10% of its equity from the market in a year.

In its first attempt, the RIL board had decided in April, 2000 to buyback 10% equity share at a price of Rs 303 a share and made a provision of Rs 11 billion for the purpose.

However, despite one extention, the company did not buy back shares till the offer closed in June 2002 even though market price of RIL share came below the offer price for a few months during the period.