Technically correct

Members of Mumbai8217;s snobby Royal Western India Turf Club RWITC are caught in the crossfire of poison mail exchanged between management committee members, primarily two well-known industrialists8212;the hot-air balloon world champion Vijaypat Singhania and Cyrus Poonawala, a well-known horse breeder who owns Indian Vaccines. The angry correspondence available with me indicates that this petty war of words was triggered by impending elections to the management committee of the club. An indicator of the nastiness contained in the letters is clear from references to 8216;petty horse breeders8217; and petulance over not being 8216;honoured8217; by the RWITC chairman and allegations about 8216;ravings and rantings8217; of these otherwise respected members of society. More amusingly, it appears that the club is not new to such tantrums. The documents being circulated include the photocopy of a handwritten missive by the hot-air industrialist asking the club8217;s chairman to 8216;stuff8217; a torn up letter into a specified part of his anatomy. This was in July 1998. When the club8217;s secretary sternly asked the industrialist if he had indeed written this letter, he resigned with an apology for 8216;indecent expression8217; of his feelings. Eight years later, club members are watching with a mix of curiosity and disgust to see where the battle for control is headed.

Ownership trail

This column had reported how a group of investors obtained a stay order from the Company Law Board CLB against the attempt by Nalwa Sons Investments holding company of the Jindal Group to allot shares worth over Rs 30 crore to 19 recently-recruited employees under a hastily hatched Employee Stock Purchase Plan ESPS. We now learn that some curious activity had preceded the Jindal bid to enhance their voting power in the holding company it is unclear why business houses list their holding companies and collect public money if they are reluctant to share benefits with minority shareholders. On October 10, 2005, a Sebi official wrote to Ricky Ishwar Dass alleging that he along with Persons Acting in Concert PAC had crossed the 15 threshold under takeover regulations that trigger off the need to make an open offer. The investor, along with his PAC, holds a 13 stake in Nalwa and has dragged it to the CLB. Sebi claimed that five other investors were also part of his group and had not reported their links as PAC with Ricky Ishwar Dass. The list included Copthall Mauritius, a FII sub-account that Sebi should remember. The investor not only denied the charge but in an unusual move has hit back at Sebi asking why these holdings do not figure in the quarterly reporting of shareholding pattern to exchanges. Where then did Sebi get these names and on what basis did it link them to one NRI investor? Ricky Ishwar Dass asks Sebi to 8216;8216;shed some light in this regard8217;8217;, but there is more to it than meets the eye.

Curious allottees

Meanwhile, Ricky Ishwar Dass has done his own sleuthing about the 19 new employees of Nalwa Sons who were to be get a Rs 30 crore bonanza guised at ESPS at just Rs 0.77 crore. In a letter to the regulator, he alleges that these employees are in fact 8216;Persons Acting in Concert8217; with the promoters. Providing specific names, designations and documents he proves that as many as five employees are directors of other Jindal group companies. With the scheme already stayed by the CLB, it is clear that the Jindals will soon find another way to enhance their voting capital while keeping minority shareholders out of the loop in their effort to formalise the separation of shareholding and control of group companies between the brothers. The battle is bound to turn more interesting. suchetadalalyahoo.com