Ambanis cleared of `insider trading'' in L&T-Grasim deal

Mumbai: Mukesh and Anil Ambani have been given a clean chit by the SEBI committee which went into allegations of insider trading in the purchase of shares in Larsen & Toubro and subsequent sale to Grasim Industries in November 2001.

"Unpublished price sensitive information was not received by Reliance Industries Ltd/Ambanis as insiders of L&T and as such, they cannot be held liable for violation of regulation 3" (of the SEBI regulations on insider trading)," SEBI said in its report on its Web site on Thursday.

The report clearing the Ambanis comes around two years after complaints of insider trading were made against them.

The Reliance group had 6.6 per cent of L&T's share capital as of March 2001, which declined to 3.92 per cent in October 2001. However, Reliance group crossed 5 per cent shareholding in L&T on November 5, 2001 and by November 12, its holdings reached 10.14 per cent. On November 18, 2001, RIL and Grasim Industries (GIL) entered into an agreement for sale of the former'sstake in L&T to Grasim at Rs 306.60 per share, which was a premium of 47 per cent over the then prevailing market price of Rs 208.50.