Reliance Infrastructure plunges as promoter pledges shares

Reliance Infrastructure plunged 5.60% to Rs 537.40 at 12:33 IST on BSE, after the company said one of the promoters has pledged more than 3.72 crore shares or 16.35% stake in the company.


The company made this announcement during trading hours today, 16 February 2009.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 289.16 points, or 3%, to 9,345.58.
On BSE, 12.43 lakh shares were traded in the counter. The stock had an average daily volume of 23.24 lakh shares in the past one quarter.
The stock hit a high of Rs 574.80 and a low of Rs 535.10 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 1775 on 18 February 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 354 on 27 October 2008.
The large-cap stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 13 February 2009, gaining 19.56% as compared to the Sensex's return of 6.21%. It had also outperformed the market in the past one quarter, rising 5.29% as compared to the Sensex's return of 1.03%.
The company's current equity is Rs 227.77 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
The current price of Rs 537.40 discounts the company's Q3 December 2008 annualized EPS of Rs 44.11, by a PE multiple of 12.18.
AAA Project Ventures, a promoter of the company has pledged more than 3.72 crore shares or 16.35% stake. The company did not mention with whom the shares were pledged.
AAA Project Ventures held 36.66% stake in the company as on 31 December 2008, while the total promoters shareholding is 37.33%.
The issue of pledged shares has gained importance in the recent past after it was discovered that the entire promoter stake of the fraud-hit Satyam Computers was pledged with various financial institutions. Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has since made it mandatory for companies to disclose details related to pledge shares.
There are fears that the lenders may dump the pledged shares if the promoters fail to repay the loan.
Reliance Infrastructure had on 13 February 2009 announced a fresh buyback of equity shares through open market at a maximum price not exceeding Rs 700 per share aggregating to Rs 700 crore ($143 million). The buy back program will remain open upto mid April 2009.
Reliance Infrastructure's net profit fell 16.7% to Rs 251.19 crore on 75.8% growth in net sales to Rs 2647.25 crore in Q3 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007.
The company is engaged in generating, transmitting and distributing electricity. It also provides electrical contracting, engineering, procurement and construction contracts and computer services.