Alcan may revise Indal offer

Mitra’s letter clearly hints that Alcan has deliberately made a lower bid and, if the situation warrants, is prepared to make a higher revised offer for the company. Corporate raider, Sterlite Industries, has already made a revised offer of Rs 115 for Indal.

Mitra has asked all company officials to "prepare tentative plans" to counter Sterlite’s bid. "Alcan has made a counter bid to Sterlite. Please make it clear to all our colleagues that the bid price does not at allreflect the value Alcan places on this company."

Making a case of how Indal is more advanced than Sterlite, Mitra said: "Sterlite is a closed authoritarian organisation with no unions. Indal is an open organisation which believes in the right of collective bargaining and shares good and bad facts with all."

"Sterlite’s project implementation is poor. This is proved by very low capacity utilisation. Virtually, all equipment in its plants are imported second hand. The aluminium rolling mills and casters are more than 30 years old. Capacity utilisation in aluminium rolling is less than 12 per cent," he says.

In his outburst against Sterlite, Mitra has not spared the media too. Says he: "Sterlite has mounted a massive and expensive media campaign of self-glorification and, condemnation of Indal by comparison. Sterlite is high profile company, which has sought high media attention. They have also `cultivated the media.’ Indal, as you know, generally tries to keep a low profile."

The March 5th letter alsohints that Indal was aware of the outcome of the company’ board meeting scheduled to be held on March 12, 1998. "Should the board decides to oppose the Sterlite, that will be the time when we must bring together the great power of Indal’s goodwill amongst all its stakeholders in order to counter Sterlite," Mitra says.

"As Indal’s management, we must wait for the decision of the board of directors and act in support of that decision," he exhorts. The senior management was warned that "Sterlite has no record for human resource development and professionals join, but quit soon after."

In the case of Madras Aluminium, (Malco), Mitra’s correspondence says that Sterlite had the advantage of Rs 1 per unit of power.