Mumbai, Jan. 12: After consolidating his holding in flagship Reliance Industries (RIL), Mukesh Ambani is now focusing on other companies in the group. RIL will now be recognised as the new promoter and will be in control of Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, a company with interests in construction and industrial projects.

RIL now holds 46.23 per cent in Reliance Infrastructure, which is a group company whose shareholding pattern filed with exchanges reveals that persons acting in concert (PACs) control 19.87 per cent of its equity. The rest is with institutional investors (0.93 per cent), private corporate bodies (52.80 per cent), Indian public (26.17 per cent) and NRIs/OCBs at 0.24 per cent. Reliance Capital, now an Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group company, was shown as one of the “persons acting in concert” in the infrastructure firm with 1.06 per cent of its equity. This was for the three months to September.

In a letter sent to bourses today, Reliance Infrastructure said its board decided at its June 10 meeting that RIL will be “recognised as the new promoter” in place of Satyapal Jain, the incumbent. The change in control in favour of RIL was also put on record. According to the Reliance Industries website, Jain, chairman of Reliance Infrastructure, is an industrialist. Others on the board are Bharat C. Gosalia, Sandeep Junnarkar, S. C. Malhotra, Mahesh Kamdar and Dilip V. Desai.

Reliance Infrastructure said RIL had no plans at this stage to acquire more shares of the company. RIL officials did not comment on the development, but observers feel the move may have been initiated to bring about greater clarity after the split in the Reliance empire. “There are some cross-holdings in the ownership structure of Reliance Infrastructure. Therefore, the announcement may have been made to quell speculation and make it clear that RIL, headed by Mukesh, is in control of Reliance Infrastructure,” an analyst said.