| The institutions, who collectively hold a 22 per cent stake in SWC, said they found no reason for differential pricing-Rs 325 a share for the promoters' 54 per cent stake and Rs 260 a share for others. |
| A senior executive of a financial institution having a sizeable stake in SWC told Business Standard: "It does not look like a fair deal as we do not see any substantial reason for there to be two different pricing offers." |
| An executive of another FI said, "If it was a question of acquiring assets and hence paying more for the same, then we would look at the offer differently. However, this is not the case and we feel the offer is not justifiable." |
| McDowell & Co and its affiliates last week had announced that they have entered into an agreement with Jumbo World Holdings, promoters of SWC to acquire the latter's 54.54 per cent stake in SWC for Rs 325 per share which includes a fee for world wide non-compete undertakings worth Rs 65 a share. |
| Following this, the UB group has raised its open offer for SWC to Rs 260 a share. The group had explained that the non-compete fee was permitted by the current regulations of capital markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). |
| However, the sources in the financial institutions said that they were only too keen to exit from Shaw Wallace. "We do not have much interest to keep our holding in the company, but our decision to sell would be based purely on merit and at the best offer price," said institutional sources. LIC and UTI-I have already made known their decision to exit from the company. |
| The UB group's open offer for a 20 per cent stake will open on April 18 and end on May 7. The Shaw Wallace scrip opend on the Bombay Stock Exchange at Rs 211.50 and closed gaining 2.28 oper cent at Rs 215.10 after reaching an intra-day high of Rs 217. |
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