Reliance may transfer 80% in KG D-6 to four affiliates

Reliance may transfer 80% in KG D-6 to four affiliates

Reliance Industries (RIL) is planning to transfer 80% of its participatory interest (PI) in the famous D6 block in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin to four unlisted subsidiaries. Valued at nearly $50 billion with 14 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, this is the arguably the most valuable asset held by the company. These four entities — Reliance KG Exploration and Development, Reliance KG D6 E&P, Reliance KG Basin and Reliance E&P KG — have recently become majority-owned subsidiaries of RIL. RIL has sought the petroleum ministry’s approval for this.

The ministry, in turn, has asked the upstream regulator, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), to furnish a list of similar cases where more than 50% of PI in blocks have been transferred to affiliates. A source familiar with this development told ET: “This is a usual practice in the global oil and gas business. It will provide greater financial flexibility to these subsidiaries for raising funds.” However, Director General of Hydrocarbons VK Sibal declined to comment, saying he has not seen any such request from the company. The RIL spokesperson too declined to comment on the issue. An email sent to Niko Resources, which holds 10% stake in the block, failed to elicit any response.

RIL holds 90% participating interest in the block. The exact value or structure of the transaction by which RIL would transfer its stake to the four subsidiaries could not be ascertained. However, it is learnt that RIL will continue to be operator of the block with at least a 10% stake, post the transaction. An analyst with an international research firm said: “The four affiliates will have strong balance-sheets, with a part of the KG basin assets. This will help them bid for global oil and gas assets. It also means that these companies may raise funds, if required, for their overseas bidding without stretching the RIL balance-sheet.” The analyst cautioned that there may be a perception that the interest of RIL shareholders may be affected by transferring this asset to the subsidiaries if it does not hold very large equity in them after the transaction. RIL’s exact shareholding in these four unlisted firms could be not ascertained.

What is known is that these firms are subsidiaries of RIL, meaning RIL’s shareholding may vary from 51-100%. However, the source quoted earlier said there would be no impact whatsoever on RIL’s shareholders as the subsidiaries were majority-owned and controlled by RIL.

Last week, in the course of his arguments, the government counsel TS Doabia had said in the Bombay High Court that RIL cannot transfer or assign its participating interest in favour of any other company without government approval, under the provisions of the production sharing contract. Mr Doabia made this comments in response to RNRL’s counsel Ram Jethmalani. Mr Jethmalani had asked for the transfer of RIL’s participating interest in the KG basin to RNRL so that the latter can sell the gas till its proposed 7,800 mega watts (MW) power plant at Dadri comes up. “RNRL will sell the gas in line with the government policy as is the case with RIL.

The government counsel’s submission that Mukesh only can sell gas but Anil cannot is biased. If needed, the court can direct transfer of PI in PSC to RNRL to enable RNRL to sell the gas. RNRL is prepared to share RIL’s investment for the development of the KG basin proportionately,” said Jethmalani in his submission to the court last week. He also said that RNRL is ready to invest Rs 25,000 crore for this. Production from the KG basin is likely to commence in the December quarter.

The company will initially produce up to 40 million metric standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas, which would be scaled up to 80 mmscmd by 2010. The sale of gas from the initial production is disputed and the Bombay High Court has restrained the company from selling gas to any third party besides NTPC and RNRL. RIL is embroiled in separate legal battles with NTPC and RNRL. On the BSE, RIL shares declined by a marginal 0.65% or Rs 14.7 to close at Rs 2230.95 on Monday. The stock has gained 0.27% over the past one week and 3.89% in the last one month.

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Source:ET,SIfy.

Sensex stages a smart recovery, ends 32 pts up : Sify

Sensex stages a smart recovery, ends 32 pts up

After opening on a weak note this morning and remaining in the red for a long time, the market staged a smart recovery in late afternoon trade to end on a positive note today thanks to heavy buying in auto, bank and IT stocks. Reports of a near normal monsoon aided the sentiment to an extent.

While the 30 share BSE sensitive index Sensex ended the day with a gain of 31.87 points or 0.22% at 14,482.22, the broader 50 stock Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange settled with a small gain of 2.15 points at 4337.50. Earlier, after opening at 14,338.27, the Sensex had tumbled to 14,286.38 in morning trade.

A weak close on Wall Street, a negative trend on the Asian bourses and a jump in oil prices had triggered heavy selling in morning trade today. Information technology stocks surged higher following Infosys Technologies making the biggest ever overseas acquisition by the Indian IT sector.

Though the bellwether stock remained subdued for a better part of the session - in fact it ended with a loss of 0.3% today - other IT majors Satyam Computer Services (3.25%), Wipro (2.15%) and Tata Consultancy Services (1.8%) signed off on a firm note.

But it was bank stock HDFC Bank, which topped the list of gainers from the Sensex today. The private sector bank major ended stronger by nearly 4%. BHEL gained nearly 2%. Mahindra & Mahindra also ended with a gain of close to 2%.

Reliance Infrastructure, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, State Bank of India and Hindalco gained 1% - 1.75%. ACC, Tata Power, NTPC, DLF, Larsen & Toubro and ONGC ended with modest gains.

Reliance Industries (down 2.3%) remained weak right through the session today. Jaiprakash Associates lost 1.85%. Tata Steel declined by 1.35%. HDFC, Reliance Communications, Sterlite Industries and Bharti Airtel lost 0.4% - 0.8%. Tata Motors and Grasim Industries posted marginal losses.

Suzlon Energy (down 4.25%) was the most prominent loser in the Nifty index. Zee Entertainment, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ABB and Idea Cellular also declined sharply.
HCL Technologies, Punjab National Bank, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Cipla, GAIL India, Reliance Petroleum and Siemens ended with sharp to moderate gains.

Bosch vaulted 13.65% on a share buy-back proposal. Max India jumped nearly 7%. Phoenix Mills gained 5.7%. Piramal Healthcare, KSK Energy, IFCI, Punjab Lloyd, IRB Infrastructure, Bajaj Holdings, REI Agro, Bank of Baroda, Tech Mahindra, Kotak Bank, Reliance Capital, UCO Bank and Crompton Greaves gained in strength.

Among midcap stocks, FSL zoomed nearly 23%. Motherson Sumi ended with a hefty gain of 9.8%. Sun Pharma Advanced Research, Apollo Tyre, IndusInd Bank, BF Utilities, Zee News, Torrent Pharma, KEC International, 3i Infotech, NIIT, Provogue and Shristi Infrastructure also ended on a firm note.

As the focus was on large cap stocks today, not many stocks from midcap and smallcap segments made it to the positive territory. The market breadth was negative. Out of 2692 stocks traded on BSE, 1199 stocks closed with gains. 1389 stocks posted losses and 104 stocks ended flat.

Source:Sify India.