RIL’s rights issue subscribed 1.3 times on penultimate day

Mumbai: Reliance Industries’ 53,124 crore rights issue — the largest such offering by a non-financial firm in the world in the past 10 years — was subscribed more than 1.3 times on the penultimate day of the offer.

The issue, which will close on June 3, has received bids for 549 million equity shares against 422.6 million shares on the table, stock exchange data shows. Shares of Reliance Industries gained 1% to close at 1,536 on Tuesday, a 22% premium to its rights offer price of 1,257. BSE has received applications for 485 million rights shares, while NSE got applications for 56.4 million shares. The non-ASBA bid quantity was 7 million rights shares.

The biggest rights issue in the past by a non-financial firm was in 2009 when mining giant Rio Tinto raised $12.34 billion. Italian oil giant ENEL raised about $7.6 billion in the same year.