Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday said it will consider closing the share buyback programme on July 27.Nearly eights months after it approved the buyback at Rs 570 a share, for which a provision of Rs 2,990 crore was made, RIL’s board would meet on July 27 to consider closing of the offer, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.The move to shelve the offer, for which the investment bankers like JM Morgan Stanley and DSP Merrill Lynch were roped in and evoked little response, comes well before its expiry of one year on January 10, 2006.At the board meeting on December 27, which approved the buyback offer, then vice-chairman and managing director Anil Ambani opposed the move and said instead of buyback, the shareholders should be given bonus shares.However, Anil was isolated with all the other directors siding with Mukesh to unanimously approve the buyback.Since the offer opened on January 10, 2005, RIL has so far bought back about 23 lakh shares, shelling out about Rs 117 crore, which is less than 5 per cent of the proposed outlay.Ril’s weighted average price was over Rs 680 a share at both BSE and NSE, much higher than the maximum offered price of Rs 570 a share at the buyback.
