Reliance Petroleum IPO on 13 April; Price band set at Rs57-Rs62

06 April 2006

The keenly awaited mega IPO from Reliance Petroleum (RPL) is all set to open for bidding on 13 April. The price band has been fixed at Rs57-Rs62 per equity share and the bidding would close on 20 April.

The company is offering 45 crore equity shares for subscription and would raise up to Rs2,790 crore at the upper end of the price band.

The issue is expected to generate considerable interest among retail investors. Retail investors can bid for up to 1600 shares at the upper end of the price band and they need to pay only Rs16 per share at the time of bidding. The balance amount would be payable on allotment.

Reliance Industries, RPL''s promoter, would be subscribing to an additional 90 crore equity shares at a price of Rs62 per share. The shares allotted to RIL would have a lock in period. Reliance had earlier subscribed to 270 crore shares at Rs10 each. RIL would hold 80 per cent post-IPO stake in RPL.

RPL had privately placed 45 crore equity shares with financial institutions, private equity companies and private investors recently. The company reportedly raised Rs2,700 crore from the issue, priced at Rs60 per equity share.

The list of investors in the pre-IPO private placement includes global majors like Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs besides domestic institutions like LIC, SBI, Bank of Baroda and UTI Bank. Mukesh Ambani has also reportedly invested in RPL in his personal capacity.