Reliance board approves bonus share issue and raising authorised capital

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable company, approved a one-for-one bonus share issue on Thursday and recommended an increase in its authorised share capital.

The board proposed raising the authorized share capital from Rs15,000 crore to Rs50,000 crore ($5.96 billion).

This marks the oil-to-chemicals conglomerate’s first bonus issue since 2017, when its stock was priced at around Rs700.

Since then, Reliance’s stock price has more than quadrupled. This will be the company’s sixth bonus issue since its listing.

Double in size

The bonus share proposal was revealed last week just before the company’s annual general meeting, where Chairman Mukesh Ambani stated that Reliance would more than double in size, with both sales and profits doubling in its retail and telecom divisions.

However, some analysts described the shareholder meeting as underwhelming, as no details were provided on the timeline for the initial public offerings of its retail and telecom units.

“When Reliance grows, we reward our shareholders handsomely,” Ambani remarked at the event.

Shares down

Despite gaining around 16 per cent this year, Reliance shares closed down 1.4 per cent at Rs 2,985.95 on Thursday, though they saw an uptick last week following the bonus share announcement.