(Bloomberg) -- Reliance Industries Ltd. secured board approval to raise as much as 200 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) as billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate prepares to repay looming maturities and fund new projects.Most Read from BloombergPrince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre Photo Is Fake: Ghislaine MaxwellHolmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US SaysMilan Luxury Real Estate Booms as Bankers Leave London for ItalyTrump Not Scared by Judge’s Million-Dollar Smack, Experts SayDOJ
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly profit as India's biggest company by market valuation took a hit from the government's windfall tax on fuel exports. The taxes were levied on exports of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels midway last year, halting the momentum in Reliance's oil-to-chemical (O2C) business built on cheap Russian crude and high demand for transportation fuels. Its consolidated profit fell nearly 15% to 157.92 billion rupees ($1.95 billion) in the third quarter, with the windfall tax eating into that by 18.98 billion rupees.
Shares of Lotus Chocolate Co rose 5% on Friday, a day after a unit of Reliance Retail Ventures agreed to buy a majority stake in the Indian chocolate maker for 740 million rupees ($8.94 million). Reliance Consumer Products Limited (RCPL), the fast-moving consumer goods arm of Reliance Retail, will acquire a 51% stake from promoters at 113 rupees a share and will also subscribe to some non-noncumulative redeemable preference shares. RCPL would also make an open offer to acquire 26% from public shareholders of Lotus.