Reliance Industries (RIL) on Saturday said its Rs 53,125-crore rights issue will open for subscription on May 20 and close on June 3.

Last month, the oil-to-telecom giant had announced the country’s largest offering and after that it had fixed May 14 as the record date for the issue.

The issue, which will be open for its existing shareholders, will come in the ratio of 1:15 and is expected to help RIL bring down its debt levels.

RIL has set its sights on becoming a zero net debt firm by March 2021 and the expectation is that if it is successful in monetising some of its other assets, the company may achieve that goal by the end of this calendar year itself.

So far, RIL has announced three deals for its digital services subsidiary with Facebook, Silver Lake and Vista Equity Partners.

At the end of the March quarter, RIL had an outstanding debt of Rs 3,36,294 crore. It also had cash in hand of Rs 1,75,259 crore, bringing the net debt position to Rs 1,61,035 crore.

In a regulatory filing, the company said the rights issue committee of the board of directors at its meeting on May 15 had approved the opening of the issue on May 20 and closing on June 3.

“An abridged letter of offer, application form of rights issue and the rights entitlement letter will be sent to the eligible equity shareholders of the company,” it said.

One share will be offered for every 15 shares held at Rs 1,257, a 14 per cent discount to the closing price for April 30.

RIL shares had closed at Rs 1,458.90 on Friday. For the period ended March 31, 2020, the company had more than 25 lakh retail shareholders.

The proposed rights issuance will be the first by RIL in three decades.

In a rights offering, companies grant shareholders the right, but not the obligation, to buy new shares at a discount to the current trading price.

While market circles expect a good response from the shareholders for the rights issue, the promoter Ambani family has pledged to buy shares that are unsubscribed.