Monday, January 23 2006 16:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: In a major expansion move, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries today (Jan 23,2006) announced its foray into retail business with an investment of over Rs 33,000 crore and decided to go public for its petroleum subsidiary to execute a Rs 28,000 crore refinery and chemical project in Gujarat.

The decisions were taken at the meeting of the RIL Board of Directors, headed by Mukesh, the first meeting after effecting the demerger earlier this month.

In a communication to stock exchanges, RIL said, "The Board has given its consent to pursue retail business through a subsidiary of the company."

"The Board has approved the initial phase of setting up of hyper-market/super-market/convenience stores/specialty stores in select cities and towns covering all the geographical regions of the country at an estimated cost of 750 million US dollars," it said.

The company further said that the directors also approved the raising of equity capital by the newly incorporated Reliance Petroleum Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, which will implement the 27 million tonnes refinery and one million tonne poly-propylene projects at the Special Economic Zone in Jamnagar, Gujarat at an estimated cost of six billion US$.

The new entity would raise equity capital, either through placement of equity shares with private equity investors or through initial public offering.

"Reliance Petroleum would continue to be a subsidiary of the company, even after the completion of raising of equity," RIL said.