Nifty 50 heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd. has informed the exchanges that it will hold a board meet on September 5 to consider an issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1.

Record date for the said bonus issue is yet to be determined.

“A meeting of the Board of Directors of the company is scheduled to be held on Thursday, September 5, 2024 to consider and recommend to the shareholders for their approval, issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 to the Equity Shareholders of the company by capitalization of reserves,” the company said in a filing.
RIL has issued two bonus shares to investors in the last 15 years, with the most recent one announced at a 1:1 ratio in 2017.

The announcement comes ahead of the 47th annual general meeting scheduled for August 29.

The companies issue bonus shares to capitalise on their free reserves, increase their Earnings Per Share (EPS) and paid-up capital, along with reducing the reserves. Shareholders are issued these shares at no additional cost and hence are also known as free shares.

Only those investors will be eligible for bonus shares who will buy the stock before the ex-date. If an investor purchases the shares on the ex-date or after that, they will not be eligible to get bonus shares.

Market analyst Deven Choksey said, “Between the consumer facing businesses of Reliance Retail and Jio Platforms, we are close to ₹1,900 to ₹2,000 stock price. Then, the oil and gas exploration business, and the oil-to-chemicals business, they constitute another ₹1,000 a share. The balance is from other businesses.”

Shares of Reliance Industries Ltd. were trading 2.31% higher at ₹3,065.70 today. The stock is up about 30% over the last 12 months. The market capitalisation of RIL is over ₹20 lakh crore.