Anil Ambani firm smuggled in yacht

The customs department has alleged that Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company Ammolite Holdings has violated the Customs Act by “smuggling in” a luxurious yacht, which is believed to be a gift by Anil to his wife.

“The imported luxury yacht ‘Tian’ was imported in contravention of Section 111(m) of the Customs Act, hence is liable for confiscation,” Assistant Commissioner of Customs SR Vichare stated in reply to a petition filed by Ammolite Holdings challenging seizure of the yacht.

The court has given time to ADAG until on Friday to reply to the allegation.

source:http://www.hindustantimes.com

BMC panel demands BEST electricity services in suburban Mumbai

Cutting across party lines Standing Committee
members of the civic body today demanded to replace Reliance Energy
with the BEST Undertaking to supply power in suburban Mumbai.
BEST Undertaking is a part of BMC and has been supplying electricity
in the city limits and has all the expertise, know-how and manpower
to supply power at affordable rates and also to provide efficient
services, Congress corporator Vinod Shelar said.
"There are also a lot of complaints against Reliance sending `exorbitant'
electricity bills to households and commercial setups," Shelar said
at the Standing Committee meeting.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani owned Reliance Energy, which had taken
over the state-controlled Bombay Suburban Electric Supply Ltd (BSES),
has been supplying power in the suburban Mumbai for the past couple of years.
"It is a welcome decision that people are demanding for a
change as they are fed up with them (Reliance Energy). It is good
that the corporation is doing something," said Congress corporator
Sameer Desai.
Supporting opposition members, Standing Committee Chairman
and Sena leader Ravindra Waikar, said, "We would provide what ever
help we can in getting the BEST services".
"If any problem arises with BEST services, we can always go and
discuss with the officials. With Reliance it is difficult as they
do not pay heed to the problems," Desai said.

source:www.ptinews.com

What is common between Ramalinga Raju and Anil Ambani? : Ill intention

• Satyam’s minority investors are saved but no one came forward for Reliance Power shareholders

• Are government and regulatory authorities willing to introspect their role in Reliance Power case in the wake of Satyam episode?

• Can we have adequate rules and regulations to safeguard interest of minority shareholders in a company?

At last we can see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel for minority investors as the government, regulators and analysts are seem working in the interest of the minority shareholders of Satyam Computers Ltd. The institutional investors raised their concern against the Satyam promoter’s ill intentions which led tem to call off the deal.

Satyam yesterday said it planned to enter the construction industry by buying all of privately held Maytas Properties shares for USD 1.3 bln and 51 percent of builder Maytas Infra for USD 300 mln.

Satyam founder and Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju and other insiders hold 36 percent in Maytas Infra and 35 percent in Maytas Properties. The two are builders that work on infrastructure projects including highways, ports and water treatment systems. Satyam helps develop software for other businesses.

As Satyam announced the move after market hours here in India, the investors in US dumped the ADRs of the company which fell by whooping 59%.

Institutional investors believe that the deal is against the interest of the minority shareholders. They are of the view that the huge investment in Mytas Properties and Mytas Infrastructure could exhaust it’s nearly USD 1.2 bln cash reserves and bury it under the huge debt burden.

The government and regulators have taken the serious stance on the issue and initiated investigation. The department of Company Law Board is examining the case for the role of the board of directors in the decision making and following corporate governance guidelines.

It’s good to see that government and regulators are acting swiftly. However, a year back in the similar situation when the minority investors of Reliance Infrastructure were robbed by the Anil Ambani the same government and regulators have royally ignored the complaints of several investors. Projects worth thousands of crores of Reliance Infrastructure were transferred to the Reliance Power where Anil Ambani holds higher stake of 51%.

Further Anil Amabni’s holding company AAA Projects had acquired 105 crore shares of Reliance Power Ltd at Rs. 10 and the same shares were issued to investors through public issue at Rs. 430 to retail investors and Rs. 450 to institutional investors. The current share price of Reliance power is Rs. 115.95 and the investors have lost substantial investment. Even if one considers the bonus issue of the company the cost of a share comes to about Rs. 269.

Transferring of projects of Reliance Infrastructure to Reliance Power was against the interest of the minority shareholders of the former company, however, the government, institutional representative on the board of the company or any regulatory agency failed to take action against the ill moves of the company promoters. The move was clearly not in the spirit of good corporate governance. If government would have acted in time huge losses to the lakhs of investors would have been averted.

Reliance Power entered the primary market last year with the largest IPO in terms of money being raised, at Rs 11,700 crore, drew a phenomenal response from both institutional and retail investors by taking the subscription count to 73 times the 22.8 crore shares on offer. However, due to weak fundamentals of the company and highly overvalued issue the shares failed to cheer investors after the listing. The share price fell sharply after listing and most of the investors were found them selves trapped, resulting in huge losses to them.

The irregularities in the issue were brought to the notice of SEBI, RBI, the Company Law Board, Ministry of Finance and Prime Minister’s Office. Despite pile of complaints by several agile investors and analysts the government, SEBI, LIC (representative on the board of the company), the stock exchanges and the Company Law Board were silent on the subject. If these agencies would have taken timely steps against the promoters of Reliance Power and its promoters the losses to the investors would have averted.

The track record of the ADAG group is suspicious as other group companies such as Reliance Natural Resources Ltd and Reliance Infrastructure Ltd is likely to be nailed for serious violation of foreign exchange rules and regulations.

Indian government and regulatory authority should wake up and make necessary changes in laws governing the management of the company so that the interest of the minority shareholders is safeguarded and promoters such as Anil Ambani and Ramalinga Raju should be penalized for indirectly siphoning of money of the company to personal ventures

Corporate Governance

Reliance-ADAG group claims to have highest standards on corporate governance. If I am able to recall properly during the fighting with his elder brother Anil Ambani alleged that his elder brother doesn’t adhere to high standard of corporate governance. Now it seems to be that it was only a tactic of Anil Ambani to extract money from Mukesh Ambani. Anil Ambani is back on his own tract of cheating government and public to fill his coffers.Now its up to us if we can trust any of the claims made by Anil Ambani?

BSES twisted facts to make case for tariff hike:DERC

In an affidavit submitted before the appellate tri-bunal for electricity. Delhi's power regulator has accused Reliance-backed discoms, BSES Yamunaand Rajdhani, of "misrepresentating facts" for making a case to raise tariff.

The affidavit was filed on tuesday by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission after its tariff order had been challenged by BSES in the appel-late tribunal . The hearing is close in a day.

DERC's affidavit said the discoms' pettition should be rejected as documents submitted by them to legitimize a deal with sister firm Reliance Energy Ltd were "not genuine".

The tribunal's judgement on the affidavit is crucial for consumers. If the affidavit is accepted in the hearing, the tribunal would have also accepted DERC's decision to disallow a Rs. 950 Crore transaction by BSES to purchase capital goods for REL, effectively squashing the discom's a major point of contention against the DERC tariff order. If that happens, officials said, the tribunal will not allow a major tariff hike even if BSES's other points of contentions are accepted.

BSES said the matter would be decided in court, a BSES official said, " We have right fully asked to be compensated for some genuine expenses and we will fight it out in court. The matter is up for hearing."

A source said DERC had disallowed the capital expenditure as it felt the transaction amounted to ripping off Delhi consumers. "BSES's petiotion against DERC's disallowance of this expenditure is the biggest point in their anti-DERC pettion which could have led to a tariff hike amounting to
Rs 2 / Unit,"
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com