Indal, Sterlite scrips crash

Now with the market expecting Sterlite’s revised offer at Rs 110, the prices fell to Rs 113 level. "As the prices prevailing on the market are too high, the speculators are now waiting for the Sterlite’s next move," brokers say.

On the other hand, Sterlite’s prices also declined from Rs 237.50 to Rs 216.90 and emerged as the top loser in the A group. Analysts say that the Mumbai-based company will have to pump in more funds to make arevised offer, hence the fall.

A late evening statement from Sterlite said that it has yet to receive a copy of the public announcement being filed by Alcan with the Sebi. "We will study the counter offer once it is available and will respond accordingly," it said. Sterlite’s board of directors are likely to meet soon to decide on the next course of action.

When contacted, Vallabh Bhansali of Enam Financial, the merchant bankers of Sterlite, said they will make up their mind in the next two-three days. Sterlite has two weeks to decide whether it would revise its Rs 90 per share open offer announced earlier.

Montreal-headquartered Alcan on Wednesday made a Rs 149.33 crore counter offer for another 20 per cent stake in Indal. The company already has 34.6 per cent stake in Indal, and the offer was made to make the Indian company its subsidiary.

Meanwhile, G P Gupta, Chairman of UTI, which holds a sizeable portion of the 36% FI holding in Indal, said that they will see if Sterlite offers a price higherthan that of Alcan before taking a decision. "We may even wait till the last day of the offer before we decide to sell our holding, be it just a small portion of the entire chunk," he said.

FI officials said they have cautioned Sterlite not to take any hasty decision and make any financial commitment. "We have over 20 per cent stake in Sterlite, we have to protect even that investment," sources say. Till date, the financial institutions remained non committal and are in constant touch with all the parties. The FIs have already taken a decision to sell off part of their stake in Indal to the best deal on offer.

Meanwhile, hectic lobbying is presently on by Indal officials among the financial institutions to ward off the Sterlite threat. Indal and Sterlite officials are busy meeting FIs, media and stock brokers to build support for themselves.