RIL parks Rs 800 cr in Anil Ambani-led MF

Move a clear departure of RIL's earlier stance of parking surplus funds into almost all MFs expect those run by Anil Ambani-led group

The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has parked more than Rs 800 crore in fixed maturity plans (FMPs) and other debt schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund led by younger sibling, AnilAmbani, market sources said on Wednesday.

Reliance Mutual Fund is part of the Anil Ambani-led group’s financial services arm, Reliance Capital Ltd.

Incidentally, RIL and the Anil Ambani group yesterday announced their first business partnership since a bitter family split in 2005. The two groups have agreed to share optic fibre cables and other telecom infrastructure, including telecommunication towers for their respective ventures, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Rcom, in a Rs 1,200-crore deal.

RIL’s investment in Reliance Mutual Fund schemes, which has been made over the last eight months, comes as a clear departure of the oil-to-retail conglomerate’s earlier stance of parking surplus funds into almost all the mutual funds, except in those run by the Anil Ambani-led group.

At the end of financial year ended March 31, 2012, RIL had invested over Rs 8,700 crore in various mutual fund schemes, including FMPs, but they did not include any schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund.

In contrast, RIL has always figured prominently in the stock portfolios of various schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund.

At least 13 schemes of Reliance Mutual Fund had RIL as one of the biggest stocks in their respective portfolios as on March 31, 2012. Together, these funds held RIL shares worth well over Rs 500 crore.

According to market sources, there was a clear change in RIL's investment strategy in the financial year 2012-13 in terms of deployment of excess cash in mutual funds.

RIL holds one of the biggest cash balances among all the corporates in the country.

It had a cash equivalent of Rs 80,962 crore (about $15 billion) as on December 31, 2012. A large portion of these funds are parked in bank deposits, certificates of deposit, mutual funds, government bonds and securities.

RIL's outstanding debt as on December 31, 2012 stood at Rs 72,266 crore, making it a debt-free company on net basis.