Shares of Reliance Power tumbled 10 per cent in early trade today amid news that US investment firm Varde Partners will buy around 15 per cent equity stake with an investment of Rs 933 crore (around $117 million) in the Anil Ambani group’s power arm. Shares of the company hit an intraday low of Rs 19.20 against the close of Rs 21.30 in the previous session. As of 10:24 am, Reliance Power was trading 9.86 per cent lower at Rs 19.20. On NSE too, the stock was down 9.86 per cent to Rs 19.20.
Market capitalisation (m-cap) of Reliance Power fell to Rs 6,528 crore on BSE. A total of 89.21 lakh shares of the firm changed hands amounting to a turnover of Rs 17.74 crore on BSE. The share hit a 52-week high of Rs 24.95 on September 6, 2022 and a 52-week low of Rs 10.98 on July 20,2022.
The board of Reliance Power on Thursday cleared issuing of up to 60 crore equity shares and/or warrants convertible into equity shares at an issue price of Rs 15.55 per share and/or warrant, aggregating to Rs 933 crore to VFSI Holdings Pte. Limited, an affiliate of Varde Partners, as per a regulatory disclosure.
The shares will be issued through preferential allotment on a private placement basis, RPL said in the disclosure.
A few days ago, the two firms inked an agreement where Reliance Power will take loan of up to Rs 1,200 crore from the US private equity investor. Reliance Power had said it would use the fund “for settlement and discharge and/or acquisition and restructuring of certain financial debt.”
In June last year, another Anil Ambani-led firm, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd raised Rs 550.56 crore via preferential allotment of up to 88.8 million shares and/or warrants convertible into shares of the company to promoter group and VFSI Holdings.
Reliance Power reported a loss of Rs 70.84 crore in Q1, down 676 per cent against a profit of Rs 12.28 crore in the corresonding quarter of previous fiscal. Sales, however, rose 2.44 per cent to Rs 2,062.97 crore in the June quarter against Rs 2,013 crore profit in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
