Mumbai, Jan 3 (IANS) Reliance Exchangenext Limited (R Next), a subsidiary of financial services major Reliance Capital Monday said it has acquired a 26 percent stake in Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX), marking its foray into the commodity futures exchange business.
The Reliance Capital unit, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, acquired the stake from Indiabulls Financial Services and has been inducted as the anchor investor in ICEX.
‘R Next has already received necessary regulatory approvals for completing this transfer and being an anchor investor in ICEX,’ the company said in a statement.
ICEX is a screen based on-line derivatives exchange for commodities.
‘We see a huge potential in the commodity market space. With this, we plan to develop an integrated and transparent national electronic commodity market place. ICEX has pedigreed investors and we look forward to working with them for taking ICEX to next level of growth’, said Rajnikant Patel, president and chief executive, R Next.
Patel has been inducted as a whole-time director in ICEX.
R Next, which already has set up a national commodity spot exchange through its wholly-owned subsidiary – Reliance Spot Exchange (RSX) will offer comprehensive range of integrated products in collaboration with ICEX.
Reliance Spot Exchange focuses on agri-commodities and offers an integrated solution of warehousing, collateral management, quality testing, assaying & grading and other value added services through its e-auction platform.
‘We feel there was a need to have an integrated spot and futures market and see a great synergy between these two institutions. ICEX and RSX both offer complementary products. ICEX will be able to offer physical delivery facility to its members while RSX members will have the ability to hedge,’ said Patel.
Post the announcement, the Reliance Capital scrip rose 2.37 percent in noon trade to an intra-day high of Rs.683.90, while Indiabulls Financial Services soared 6.2 percent in early trade to touch its intra-day high of Rs.184.50.
