Bajoria blasts Wadia for moving CLB

"It was totally unwarranted… if anybody is buying shares in a company and he is not meddling in its affairs, why should the management object? I was only raising the share prices and helping Nusli Wadia," he said.

As for the textile major’s shareholders, they need not salivate at the prospect of an open offer by Bajoria: the jute baron insists that his holding is below the 15 per cent level that would have automatically required him to bid for more shares from the market.

When the Calcutta-based Bajoria hit the headlines, media reports had pegged his holding at 14 per cent, with another two to three per cent held by friends and associates.

Bajoria, however, insists that he has not known if any friends or associates have picked up Bombay Dyeing shares, which would have brought the open offer clause into play.

"When I was buying, people told me that others were also doing so, but I don’t know who," Bajoria said. "They were not acting in concert with me.. they were making their own investment decisions," he said.

"I don’t fight with managements. But if the management wants to fight, I am not a sissy that I will sit back at home," Bajoria said.

Nor does he have any plans to seek a place on the board or even attend the shareholders meetings of either Bombay Dyeing or Ballarpur Industries Ltd, the other company in which he has created waves by picking up a stake.

Bajoria said he had picked up a six to seven per cent share in Ballarpur Industries Ltd simultaneously, but stopped at that level because of BILT’s debt burden.

"There was no point in buying further shares in Ballarpur because after all it is a company which is full of debt," Bajoria said. "But I think paper industry is doing well at the moment, so there are chances of the share price going up. But it is not a sound company like Bombay Dyeing."

Bajoria said he not received any questionnaire from the Securities & Exchange Board of India after the media storm broke. "Sebi asked us few questions three months back, and we have replied. I read somewhere that they have issued a letter yesterday, but I have not received that letter," he said.

Bajoria dismissed BILT’s reported move to press the country’s apex chambers to lobby the government for a change in the takeover code. "If the management if afraid of anybody buying their shares, they should buy 100 per cent," he said.

Bajoria has acquired 14-15 per cent share recently in Bombay Dyeing while Wadia own 32 per cent stake in the textile firm. "I have already purchased about 14 per cent of the total equity of Bombay Dyeing from the market and for further increasing the stake, I will have to make open an offer for which I am not prepared as of today," he said.

“But if Wadia wants to sell out his stake… I will make an open offer for all shareholders,” he added.

"What is the point in going for open offer (if Wadia does not sell), if I can not muster management control?" he asked.

Bajoria will require Rs 200 crore to purchase another 20 per cent stake in Bombay Dyeing if Sebi asks it to make an open offer for Bombay Dyeing. The Jute Baron has already invested over Rs 45 crore in his acquisition.

Bombay Dyeing’s scrip price is langushing from the last few years due to lack of focus in the company’s planning. The scrip price has crashed from Rs 450 in the mid-nineties to at around Rs 106 prevailing now.