Reliance Denies Report of Plan to Buy a Stake in Suzlon, Spokesman Says

Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s most valuable company, has no plan to acquire a stake in Suzlon Energy Ltd., spokesman Manoj Warrier said, denying a report by Zee Business channel.

Reliance may purchase a stake in Suzlon, India’s biggest maker of wind turbines, Zee reported earlier today, without saying where it got the information.

“We do not comment on market speculation or rumor,” Nicholas Archer, Suzlon’s head of group public relations, said in an e-mailed statement.

Suzlon surged as much as 14 percent after the Zee report and closed at 51.3 rupees with a gain of 10 percent, its biggest increase in 10 months. Reliance, which has been acquiring companies to diversify from the oil and gas industry, rose 0.1 percent to 937.45 rupees.

Reliance, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, bought a 14.12 stake in EIH Ltd., operator of the Oberoi and Trident hotels, on Aug. 31. The company increased the stake to 14.8 percent, according to an exchange filing yesterday.

“Reliance acquiring a stake in EIH surprised many people,” hence some investors believed today’s report on Suzlon, said Krishnakant Thakur, an analyst at Quant Broking Pvt, who has a “sell” recommendation on Suzlon.

Reliance had 1.15 million shares change hands in two block transactions on the National Stock Exchange today. The buyers and sellers weren’t immediately known.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hemal Savai in Mumbai at at hsavai@bloomberg.net; Rajhkumar K Shaaw in Mumbai at rshaaw@bloomberg.net.

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