Mumbai, Jan. 18: The sum of the parts is greater than the whole ? that’s the wisdom that dawned on the market on the day that the value of four businesses were spun off from the Reliance Industries stock.

The jury is still out on the value of the four demerged outfits ? Reliance Communications Ventures (RCVL), Reliance Energy Ventures (REVL), Reliance Capital Ventures (RCVL) and Reliance Natural Resources (which was earlier christened Global Fuel Management Services) ? that have gone to Anil Ambani.

The big ticket is Reliance Communications Ventures, which analysts have put at anywhere between Rs 170 and Rs 254 per share.

RCVL is the holding company for the telecom businesses. It has a 45 per cent share in Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd (RCIL), 45.3 per cent in Reliance Infocomm and 35.2 per cent in Reliance Telecom Ltd.

Reliance Infocomm provides CDMA-based mobile services in 21 circles and has a wireless subscriber base of about 12.2 million. It also provides fixed wireless services. Reliance Telecom provides GSM-based wireless services in eight circles and has a subscriber base of about 1.6 million.

RCIL is the infrastructure company in the group that owns the fibre optic backbone across the country.

Valuations differ: while Citigroup has calculated the RCVL stock’s value at Rs 178, Enam Securities places it at Rs 254.

Citigroup values Reliance Capital Ventures at Rs 22, Reliance Energy Ventures at Rs 43 and Global Fuel Management Services at Rs 5. That makes for a combined value of Rs 248.

But if you take away Reliance’s discovered price of Rs 714 from yesterday’s closing price of Rs 928 for the integrated whole, it gives the four businesses a combined value of just Rs 214. So, hypothetically at least, the investors are better off now.

If you go by the Enam estimates, the combined value of the four demerged entities works out to Rs 328: Reliance Communications Ventures at Rs 254, Reliance Energy Ventures at Rs 47, Reliance Capital Ventures at Rs 22 and Global Fuel Management Services at Rs 5.

Enam estimates that the Reliance rump will be valued at Rs 803 and would include the value of the refining/petrochemicals businesses, 12.2 per cent treasury stock and reserves of the exploration and production (E&P) business. It reckons that the refining/petrochemical business will be Rs 528, the value of investments at Rs 105 and the E&P business at Rs 169 (based on a valuation of $7 per barrel of proven reserves).

The sum of the parts valuation shows that the demerger will unlock value for the 3.3 million shareholders of the Reliance group ? and the break-up will, therefore, bring big tangible gains.