... In Talks With Institutions For Shares Demat

Reliance Industries Ltd has said it is actively working with all bulk holders of its equity to dematerialise all the shares held by them.

This marks a major effort by the corporate giant to give a boost to paperless trading through the National Securities Depository Ltd (NDSL) since it has a massive equity base.

The first report of international accountants, Touche Ross & Co, has also been circulated to shareholders as part of the 1996-97 annual report of the company. Touche Ross, a member of the international consultancy group, Deloitte, Touche and Tohmatsu International (DTTI), was appointed as accountants to the company during 1996-97.

 

Reliance, which was one of the first Indian corporates to enroll itself into NSDL, says it has now begun moving away from the systemic problems plaguing share trading, and active trading in the dematerialised segment has helped the company to push further in this direction.

The company has moved aggressively in cleaning up its share-related work after it faced regulatory problems with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) relating to issuance of duplicate shares and switching of shares at the registrars end. Reliances share capital stands at Rs 458 crore, and the company has a market capitalisation of Rs 14,395 crore.

Most of the technical and share-related problems find their origin in the Indian system of paper-based trading and settlements, the company says in its annual report for 1996-97.

The major initiatives relating to investor support taken by Reliance during the year are:

dematerialisation and commencement of trading on the depository

the appointment of Touche Ross. The company has said it would work closely with Touche Ross to harmonise the best of Indian and international accounting practices to provide the most value added inputs to shareholders

the appointment of Arthur Anderson and Associates (AAA) for doing a complete reconciliation of its share capital register based on information collected directly from the shareholders.

the appointment of Price Waterhouse for recommending the best practices, and conducting system audits of the registrar and transfer (R&T) functionsc the appointment of Karvy Consultants for handling its R&T work.