Indian Petrochemicals Co divestment to be completed by year-end.
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Saturday, August 21, 1999
IPCL divestment to be completed by year-end
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, Aug 20: Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) will be privatised by December with the government selling its 25 per cent stake to a strategic partner, a top official of the company said today.
"With this, the government stake in the company would come down to 35 per cent from the present 60 per cent," IPCL chairman and managing director KG Ramanathan told reporters here.
"We are planning to complete the entire process of disinvestment by December and have already started preparing the shareholders agreement which will define the relationship between the government and strategic partner," he said.
The shareholding agreement approval from the government is expected to be completed in the next two weeks.
"After the approval, the due dilligence with the potential bidders will start, which is expected to begin next month," he said.
Ramanathan said after these processes, the final bids, including the price, through the global advisors Warburg Dillon Reid, would be invited from allthe bidders.
Currently, the scrip of IPCL is traded at Rs 117 on the stock market and according to investment bankers, the price per share (based on replacement cost method) works out to around Rs 150.
"The final bidding process would begin only after the new government is in place," Ramanthan said adding that entire process was expected to be completed in two months.
When asked on the companies that have bid for the government stake, he declined to give the details saying "it is supposed to be done by the government."
On the kind of strategic partner the government was looking for selling its stake, he said ``the partner who can add value to the company. It is expected that the partner should have strength in marketing, finance and feedstock.'
He said after buying the government's 25 per cent stake, the strategic partner would have to come out with an open offer to buy a minimum of 20 per cent shares from the public under the SEBI takeover code guidelines.
"The open offer would have to bemade only after the final aggrement has been reached between the government and the strategic partner," he said.
With the open offer, the stake of strategic partner could also go upto 51 per cent (majority), he added.
(1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.) |
