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Raju ups Sri Vishnu offer price to Rs 55, his stake to 50.23 per cent

Former chairman of Raasi Cements B V Raju along with an associate company Kalahastheeswar Finance today revised the open offer price to shareholders of Sri Vishnu Cements from Rs 25 per share to Rs 55 per share.

The Hyderabad-based industrialist, who had earlier this year lost control of RCL to India Cements Limited following an open offer made by the promoters of that company, had on August 20 bought 1.50 million equity shares from the ICICI at Rs 55 per share.

The negotiated deal between the financial institution and Raju had made the revision of the offer price inevitable as under the Securities and Exchange Board of India guidelines, the open offer has to be revised by the company wishing to acquire control of the target company.

With the acquisition of the 6.53 per cent stake, the holding of Raju and his associates stands at 50.23 per cent, marginally lower than the controlling stake of 51 per cent. According to a statement today, Raju ruled out the possibility of any counter-offer by any other party and as per SEBI rules the time period for such an offer has elapsed.

Also, the hike in offer price was a result of the increase in the share price of SVCL from Rs 16 on June 1 to Rs 45 on August 20 and Rs 48.50 today.

It may be recalled that during the time when ICL was trying to gain control of RCL, Raju had transferred his holding in SVCL totalling 39.49 per cent to nine different companies, in an attempt to ward off any takeover threat to SVCL.

UNI