Swiss firm Rieter Machine Works Ltd has exited from Coimbatore-based textile machinery firm Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd (LMW) by selling its 3.48 per cent stake in the company for around Rs 78.40 crore. Meanwhile, the Reliance Mutual Fund acquired 200,000 shares in LMW, at Rs 2005 per share, aggregating to Rs 20.10 crore while HDFC Equity Fund and Prudence Fund togather acquired around 190,087 shares for Rs 38 crore, through bulk deals.
According to the bulk deal data available with National Stock Exchange (NSE), Rieter Machine Works Ltd has sold around 391,520 shares, which is its entire holding in LMW till last quarter, for Rs 2002.59 per share. Rieter Machine Works had around 13 per cent of LMW's share earlier, of which around nine per cent were brought back by LMW by 2010, according to a senior company official.
The buyback of around 1.1 million shares were for a total price of Rs 225 crore for LMW, said R Rajendran, director, finance, LMW. With the latest sale of 3.48 per cent, Rieter Machine Works, which started the investment into the company by investing a million Swiss Francs in 1967, has made its exit from the company, he confirmed.
Apart from investment, the companies also had a collaboration to share technical knowhow. LMW and Rieter Machine Works also had a 50:50 partnership firm Rieter-LMW Machinery (RLM). LMW, earlier, acquired Rieters' share in the joint venture, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Rieter has already set up its manufacturing unit in Pune and will serve its customers independently.
Between the sales of 1.1 million shares to LMW and the latest sales of 3,91,520 shares through open market, the company had shed 140,000 shares in LMW, in 2011, at around Rs 1,900-2,000 a share.