The retail portion of the issue of the Reliance Power that
is engaged in developing and building power plants with
a combined installed capacity of 28,200 mw, both locally
and overseas, was oversubscribed by 14 to15 times attracting
a record participation of 50 lakh retail investors. The
portion reserved for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs)
was oversubscribed by 70 to 80 times with the participation
of over 500 domestic and international QIBs, involving an
amount of over Rs. 5,00,000 cr. Intriguingly, PSU banks
such as PNB, SBI, BoI and IOB are reported to have put in
bids worth Rs. 1,500-2,000 cr, which is a cool departure
from their known passive disposition towards profit-making.
To cap it all, the issue is said to have garnered Rs. 1,15,000
cr as application money deposited in banks which, incidentally,
almost equals India's deficit for 2006.
This overwhelming response has proved a point: the PILs
filed against Reliance could not cut ice with its investor block.
Even otherwise, Reliance is, perhaps, more used to adverse comments
from a section of media which enjoys writing about Reliance
almost similar to what Rayner wrote in his recent book, The
Associates: Four Capitalists who Created California to describe
the four business moguls of 19th century California: “cared only
about money” and to become “fabulously wealthy” they “bent
laws, broken rivals, and bribed governments.” All that, of course,
could not deter the group from becoming what it is today.
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