Reward time for Reliance shareholders

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has said issue of bonus shares after a 12-year hiatus was just fulfilment of the company's commitment to reward shareholders after completion of important projects.

The RIL board on Wednesday approved giving one free share for every share held, upon completion of a mega refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat and KG basin oil and gas field development.

"It was a Reliance commitment, whenever we finish a value creation cycle, we make sure that everybody is awarded," he told CNBC TV-18 business channel.

The company built a 580,000 barrels per day refinery at a cost of $6 billion to make Jamnagar the world's largest refining hub. It invested an equal amount in beginning production of natural gas from KG-D6 fields in record time. Together with a $4 billion pipeline for transporting gas to consumption centres, the group had invested over Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion) in 3-4 years.
"This value creation cycle was the biggest in our history where we had nearly Rs 100,000 crores of assets coming in line," said Ambani who heads the nation's most valuable company.

The gas from KG-D6 has cut fertiliser subsidy and increase power generation, thereby helping the economy in times of downturn, he said.

"I think it was the shareholders turn (to be rewarded now). It was a commitment (we have fulfilled now)," he said.

Ambani said Reliance was "pretty focused" on growth trajectory. "We are very much on track." He, however, refused to discuss new projects saying: "You have to wait for the next AGM to get specifics of that but the direction is not changing at all."

Asked about the growth vehicles for Reliance in next five years, he said: "We will spell out the specifics on November 17."