The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed an aggregate penalty of Rs 70 crore on Reliance Industries (RIL), its chairman Mukesh Ambani and two other entities for manipulative trading.
The case pertains to sale and purchase of Reliance Petroleum (RPL) shares in the cash and the futures segments in November 2007. This followed RIL's decision in March 2007 to sell 4.1% stake in RPL, a listed subsidiary that was later merged with RIL in 2009.
The Sebi, in a statement, observed that RIL had entered into a well-planned operation with its Agents to corner the open interest in the RPL Futures and to earn undue profits from the sale of RPL shares in both cash & futures segments and to dump large number of RPL shares in the cash segment during the last ten minutes of trading on the settlement day resulting in a fall in the settlement price.
It also observed that Mukesh Ambani, being the chairman & managing director of RIL, was responsible for its day-to-day affairs and thereby, liable for the manipulative trading done by RIL.
Further, the market regulator observed that Navi Mumbai SEZ and Mumbai SEZ had allegedly aided and abetted RIL by providing funds to one of the agents appointed by RIL, who in turn provided funds to other 11 agents for making the margin payments for the short positions in RPL November Futures.
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Consequently, Sebi imposed a penalty of Rs 25 crore on RIL, Rs 15 crore on Mukesh Ambani, Rs 20 crore on Navi Mumbai SEZ and Rs 10 crore on Mumbai SEZ.
RIL is India's largest private sector company. Its activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and digital services.
RIL's consolidated net profit fell 6.6% to Rs 10,602 crore on 25.5% decline in net sales to Rs 1,11,236 crore in Q2 September 2020 over Q2 September 2019.
The scrip gained 0.13% to Rs 1987.15 on Friday. It traded in the range of 1982.30 and 1997.30 during the day.
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