Reliance Infocomm Plans IPO In 2005

[city02 63]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/876255.cms

DEEPA BABINGTON

NEW YORK: Reliance Industries plans to launch an initial public offering of its Infocomm telecommunications unit in late 2005 or early 2006, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Wednesday.

Reliance Infocomm, which is 45 percent owned by petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries, is the country’s largest mobile phone operator.

But the conglomerate has yet to determine how much it plans to raise through a public offering of shares in Infocomm, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani told reporters on the sidelines of a Merrill Lynch conference in New York.

Earlier this week, the fast-growing Reliance Infocomm said it expects its phone subscriber base to rise to 10 million by early 2005 from 8.69 million now as it rolls out services in 3,900 new towns and cities.

Reliance's Ambani was in New York to address analysts and investors on potential opportunities to invest in India.

[deepu 0]

Reliance Infocomm Plans Ipo In 2005

Reliance Infocomm may go public in 2005, Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries said in New York on Thursday.

The sale of shares in Reliance Infocomm will be "as soon as we have finished the roll out of our broadband Internet services," Ambani said.

Ambani said the company should announce its initial public offer sometime in late 2005 or early 2006, Bloomberg reports.

Ambani was in New York to attend the two-day investors forum that started on Wednesday.

Reliance Infocomm, which has emerged as India's largest mobile phone company, is adding nearly 4,000 cities and towns to its mobile network.

"With the rapid growth that the telecommunication sector is witnessing, Reliance would not have any problem attracting investors," Bloomberg said, quoting Sanjay Dongre, who manages about$ 237 million in stocks at UTI Asset Management Company in Mumbai.

According to the report, Reliance Infocomm posted a net loss of about $85 million in the year ended March 31, 2004, its first year of operations, after it wrote off unpaid bills by some of its customers.

It had 8.69 million subscribers at the end of August, compared with 8.33 million in the previous month, including fixed line users, the report said.

[Utsav 0]

Reliance Infocomm posted a net loss of about $85 million in the year ended March 31, 2004.

You mean RIL has lost Rs.391 Crore from RIM project?

Edited October 8, 2004 by turbasu