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RIL to tighten grip on BSES 'over a period of time'

BS Corporate Bureau in Mumbai

Reliance Industries Ltd will increase its stake in BSES, the group power company, "over a period of time," RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said.

"Clearly, we will increase our stake to 51 per cent in a manner and at a pace that everyone is comfortable with," he added.

In power, we will work on a "distribution-backwards" strategy, he said, indicating that the company will focus first on the distribution business and then get into power generation.

BSES has interests in three distribution circles in Orissa and two circles in New Delhi and has said it will get into more distribution circles as and when other state electricity boards are privatised.

Earlier, RIL had said that all the group's investments in the power sector will be routed through BSES. Reliance now has 38 per cent stake in BSES, and is the single largest shareholder. It has recently overtaken the financial institutions which hold 36 per cent stake in the company.

Till date, however, Reliance has not sought to take management control of the company, which still continues to be professionally run.

The two companies, BSES and RIL, have been exploring the option of transferring the latter's power generation projects to BSES.

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