RPower Sets $200 bn

It is unprecedented, even if you call it plain euphoria. Nowhere in the world has an initial public offer of shares by a new company evoked as much response as the Reliance Power issue that closed on Friday. For a company that is yet to commence business or show income from operations, investors from across the world placed bids worth $200 billion for its shares worth $2.9 billion on offer. Retail investors put in 5.1 million applications for shares worth $47 billion or Rs 188,000 crore. Since as per rules, retail applicants can pay just a fourth of the total money initially, at least Rs 50,000 crore has been invested in the issue. For the sake of comparison, the collections are a fourth of the total direct tax collections for last year. The overwhelming response for the issue is based on expectations that Reliance Power will be able to complete its 13 power projects in the next couple of years. The sale will increase the wealth of Anil Ambani, already India's third richest man after his Reliance Energy quadrupled in value last year. His wealth more than tripled last year to $45 billion, according to Forbes magazine, behind elder brother Mukesh Ambani and Lakshmi Mittal. On listing of REPL, there is speculation that Anil may replace Mukesh as the richest Indian.