Reliance Industries hits 52-week high, here's why the stock is in focus

Reliance Industries share price: Shares of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) jumped 4.5 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,755 apiece on the BSE intraday on July 10. The stock rallied after the oil-to-telecom conglomerate announced plans to demerge its financial services undertaking into Reliance Strategic Investments Limited (RSIL) and rename and list it as Jio Financial Services Limited (JFSL).

The company said Jio Financial Services will lend to consumers and merchants based on proprietary data analytics and will eventually branch out into insurance, payments, digital broking, and asset management.

Every RIL shareholder will get one share of the new firm for every share held in the parent, it said.

While the effective date of the demerger has been fixed as July 1, July 20 has been fixed as the record day for allocating shares of the new company, according to the company's stock exchange filing.

The spinoff, which will create the fifth-largest financier in terms of capital and compete directly with the likes of Paytm and Bajaj Finance, will complement Reliance's consumer businesses, which include India's largest wireless operator with about 428 million users, a top retail chain with over 17,000 stores, according to a PTI report. 

"In accordance with the provisions of the (demerger) Scheme, Reliance Strategic Investments Limited (RSIL) shall issue and allot one fully paid-up equity share of RSIL having a face value of Rs 10 each for every one fully paid-up equity share of Rs 10 each of the company to the shareholders of the company whose names are recorded in the register of members and/or records of the depository as of the record date," the firm said in a stock exchange filing.

The board of directors of the new company, at a meeting held on July 7, approved the appointment of new directors. Isha Mukesh Ambani, the elder daughter of the billionaire, has been appointed as a non-executive director. Alongside him, Reliance executive Anshuman Thakur has been appointed as a non-executive director.

It said former bureaucrat Rajiv Mehrishi, who served as home secretary as well as Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), has been appointed independent director on RSIL for five years. Sunil Mehta, chief executive of the Indian Banks' Association, and Bimal Manu Tanna, a chartered accountant who worked with PwC, too, have been appointed independent directors.

The stock ended at Rs 2,735.15, up 3.78 per cent on the BSE.

With inputs from PTI