Reliance Industries merges with subsidiary

Reliance Industries RIL announced yesterday that it will fold Reliance Petroleum RPL into itself at a ratio of one RIL share for every 16 shares of RPL. Consequently, RIL will issue 69.2 million new shares and its equity capital will increase to Rs16.4 billion $314.5 million.

RIL will also buy Chevron Corporation's 5% stake in Reliance Petroleum, as part of the plan to acquire the remaining shares of the petrochemicals unit. The ownership stake of the controlling shareholders, the Ambani family, in RIL will fall from 49% currently to 47% post-merger, due to the issuance of new shares.

RIL is India's largest private sector company with a turnover of $34.7 billion in the...