The three companies, which received one crore shares of Reliance Infocomm at a face value of Re 1 per share, have returned them to the company's trust, a company media release said on Tuesday. However, it did not specify when the shares were returned.
The three companies, Fairever Traders and Consultants Ltd, Prerna Auto and Softnet Traders and Consultants, received these shares on September 16, 2002, from the trust, which was set up for the benefit of employees and business associates.
The trust was also authorised to sell the company's shares to its business associates.
The three companies received the shares as the nominees of Ashish Deora, a promoter director of Fairever Traders and Consultants Ltd. The share allotment came as part of a compensation package for Deora for the services he was to offer to the company's project in Greater Mumbai.
According to the deal, the trust could allot the shares to either Deora or his nominees. Since Deora was not able to fulfill his commitments, the shares were returned to the trust, Reliance Infocomm said.
According to records available with the Registrar of Companies, these companies held these shares up to at least September 23, 2004.
These companies figured in media reports when it came to light that they had benefited from the allotments of Reliance Infocomm shares at par value, when barely six weeks later, Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd -- the parent company of Reliance Infocomm -- was allotted fresh Infocomm equity at Rs 55 per share.
Media reports alleging that these companies were connected to BJP leader, Pramod Mahajan, were also denied by Reliance Infocomm.
In a media statement issued on Monday, Reliance Infocomm clarified that "no politician or bureaucrat at any moment of time, has held or holds any shares of RIC. This transaction has nothing to do with Pramod Mahajan and any insinuation to the contrary is totally mischievous and motivated."
According to the shareholding pattern of Reliance Infocomm as on September 23, 2004, Fairever held 34 lakh (3.4 million) shares, Prerna owned 33 lakh (3.3 million) shares, and Softnet owned another 33 lakh (3.3 million) shares, taking the total to one crore shares.
Reliance Infocomm said in the media release that Ashish Deora received these shares as part of a contract for obtaining "in-building permissions and associated right-of-way permissions".
Reliance Infocomm said "Ashish Deora is closely related to Kantibhai Gowani, a reputed builder of Mumbai, who has been a close business associate of the Reliance group for over two decades."
"Since Ashish Deora had prior expertise and experience in obtaining in-building permissions and associated right-of-way permissions, his services were retained by Reliance Infocomm as part of the company's fibre optic/broad band project in Mumbai," the statement said.
Reliance Infocomm said it had agreed with Ashish Deora to pay an upfront "nominal compensation" per building and the remaining via appreciation on equity shares "to be sold to him or his nominees by the Trust."
Subsequently, the statement says, "Pursuant to this understanding, the Trust sold equity shares to three nominee companies controlled by Ashish Deora."
"However, Ashish Deora was not able to fulfill his commitments. As a result, the shares were returned to the Trust," the statement said, adding that "the three companies or Ashish Deora do not hold any shares of Reliance Infocomm."
