Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Reliance sells 10 per cent stake in L&T to Grasim

Reliance Industries, India's largest petrochemicals company, said on Sunday it had sold a stake of "just over" 10 per cent in engineering and cement firm Larsen and Toubro to Grasim Industries.

Reliance sold around 25 million shares of Larsen and Toubro to Grasim for Rs 7.66 billion ($159.8 million), the company said in a statement.

It said the sale price of Rs 306.60 per share represented a premium of 47 per cent over L&T's last traded price of Rs 208.50 on Friday.

Grasim Industries, India's third-largest cement maker, is part of the leading business house Aditya Birla Group. The stake gives Grasim a foothold in the country's largest cement-maker L&T, which has an annual capacity of 16 million tonnes.

Reliance said it did not require L&T's expertise in its future plans and had decided to sell the shares to unlock shareholder value.

"The divestment of the L&T stake is in consonance with our declared objectives of unlocking value from our investments, in the interest of maximising overall shareholder value," the statement quoted Reliance managing director Anil Ambani as saying.

Reliance is India's largest business group with total revenues of $13.2 billion. Its activities span sectors including petrochemicals, refining, oil and gas production, textiles, power, telecom and financial services.

Tell us what you think of this report