Our Bureau

Mumbai , Aug 5

THE board of Reliance Industries Ltd tonight approved the proposed demerger scheme.

Earlier, RIL got even with its erstwhile Vice-Chairman, Mr Anil Ambani, for having stolen its thunder on the day of the AGM.

In a notice to the NSE today before its scheduled board meeting, the company disowned the details of the proposed demerger as disclosed by Mr Anil Ambani to the media on Wednesday.

However, when the RIL board later approved the demerger scheme, there is understood to be no major difference from the details announced by Mr Anil Ambani.

It is understood that the justification for RIL distancing itself from the details given out at a news conference by Mr Anil Ambani is that he had no locus standi to make such a statement prior to the RIL board approving it.

At the AGM that day, Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of RIL, had told shareholders that the detailed proposal for the demerger of power, financial services, and telecommunication services would be put up before them after the board approved it.

Later that day, Mr Anil Ambani announced the details of the demerger at a news conference, which were not communicated to the stock exchanges.

He mentioned details of four entities against three announced at the Reliance AGM.

At that time, it was viewed as a game of one-upmanship by the younger Ambani and the details of how many shares the RIL shareholder would get in the three demerged entities was made public by him.

Before the RIL board met today, the company intimated the stock exchanges that the proposal was still under consideration and that no final decision had been taken so far. "That being the case, the views expressed in the media are not of the company and the information reported in the media has not originated from Reliance Industries Ltd," the statement said.

"After the board takes a final decision, the company shall inform about the details of the scheme of proposed demerger," the statement said.

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