The Reliance group has put in bids amounting to Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) in the National Thermal Power Corporation initial public offer  which closed on Thursday. No details, however, are available on the bids put in by individual group companies.

Though a Reliance group spokesman declined to comment, merchant banking sources confirmed that several of the group's entities had made bids.

Reliance's interest in NTPC is not surprising as it has already committed itself to a massive expansion in the power sector. Additionally, Reliance intends to get into power trading in a big way.

According to the final collection numbers posted on the Bombay Stock Exchange Web site, the IPO was subscribed nearly 13 times, mopping up almost Rs 68,250 crore (Rs 682.50 billion), based on estimates at the upper end of the indicated price band of Rs 52-62 per share.

Incidentally, the NTPC issue now holds the record for the largest amount raised from the primary market -- Rs 68,250 crore as against the Rs 60,700 crore (Rs 607 billion) ONGC recently raised.

According to data on the BSE website, foreign institutional investors have put in bids for 6.051 billion shares, accounting for 54 per cent of the total bids received and seven times the issue size of 865 million shares.

Retail investors have subscribed to 2.096 billion shares, 2.42 times the total issue size. Merchant banking sources said this was by far the largest turnout by retail investors in the recent mega issues.

The NTPC issue managed to attract the maximum participation in all the three category of investors: qualified institutional buyers, high net worth individuals and retail investors.

Industry watchers say apart from the quality of the issuer, the NTPC issue attracted huge investment also because of the attractive price band.

In the ONGC issue, the QIB portion was subscribed 12.9 times, while in the NTPC issue it was subscribed more than 18 times. In the TCS issues, the QIB portion was subscribed around 14 times.