‘Friendly stakeholder’ Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) on Friday increased its stake to 18.53 per cent, from 14.8 per cent, in EIH Ltd, which manages the Oberoi chain of hotels.
The Mumbai-based firm picked up 21,315,000 shares for Rs 191.8 crore in an open-market transaction, through its wholly owned subsidiary Reliance Industries Investment and Holding. RIL was brought in by EIH as a white knight in a surprise move in 2010 to thwart the possibilities of a takeover by rival ITC. ITC has been accumulating shares in EIH since 2000 and currently holds 14.98 per cent in the company.
The Ambani group firm bought the shares in an open-market deal at Rs 90 apiece from Pivet Finances and Gaylord Impex, both owned by Analjit Singh, the chairman of Max India. While Gaylord sold 88,19,683, Pivet sold 1,24,82,720 equities in the Kolkata-based firm.
An RIL spokesperson, when asked whether the move would reduce any possibilities of a takeover by ITC, said, “We are not in war with anybody and this is not for that.” EIH did not respond to calls from Business Standard. RIL first picked up a 14.2 per cent stake in 2010 for Rs 1,021 crore and later increased it to 14.8 per cent.
A move to increase the stake was anticipated after EIH inducted Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani and a close aide Manoj Modi late last year. After the firm’s AGM in August 2011, EIH chairman and chief executive officer P R S Oberoi had said “Our (RIL and EIH) visions match and RIL is a friendly shareholder.” Oberoi Hotels, the promoter entity, holds 34.93 per cent stake in EIH as per December 2011. The shares of Reliance Indistries were up 0.49 per cent to Rs 814.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, while EIH shares also zoomed 2.05 per cent to Rs 89.70.
