New Delhi, Feb 2: Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Power has become the country's biggest company in terms of number of shareholders following the allotment of shares in its recently completed Rs 11,560 crore initial public offering.

Reliance Power, whose IPO ended on January 18 with a huge demand worth over Rs 7,50,000 crore and over-subscription of 73 times, has close to 42 lakh shareholders, the company said today after allotment of shares under the public issue.

This shareholder base is bigger than any other company currently listed on Indian stock exchanges, according to the shareholding data filed with the bourses.

Reliance Power has taken over another group company, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), in terms of number of shareholders.

According to the latest information available with stock exchanges, RNRL had close to 22.3 lakh shareholders at the end of December 2007 quarter, followed by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries with close to 20.6 lakh shareholders. Interestingly, seven top companies in terms of the number of shareholders belong to either of the groups led by two Ambani brothers. While the top two companies -- Reliance Power and RNRL belong to Anil Ambani Group; the third largest, RIL, and fifth largest, Reliance Petroleum (RPL) belong to the Mukesh Ambani group.

Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Communications is the fourth largest with a shareholder base of about 19.8 lakh. RPL had close to 16.9 lakh shareholders as on December 31, 2007. Besides, Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital are sixth and seventh largest with 15.4 lakh and 12.5 lakh shareholders respectively