Swaraj Mazda was in focus following Punjab Tractor's (PTL) decision to sell a 14.99 per cent stake in the company to Sumitomo Corp of Japan. PTL holds 3.045 million shares or a 29.04 per cent stake in the commercial vehicle maker.
Sumitomo Corp's stake in Swaraj Mazda will now go up from 10.40 per cent to 25.39 per cent. The deal comes at a time when an open offer by private equity fund Actis for a 25 per cent stake in Swaraj Mazda is on. Actis' shareholding in Swaraj Mazda before the open offer was 15 per cent.
If the offer gets fully subscribed, its stake would rise to 40 per cent. Though the open offer had opened at Rs 315 per share on December 19, 2004, Actis later hiked the offer price to Rs 400 per share. The offer closes on January 17.
| RECAP: PANTALOON RETAIL |
Stock of the week
The pharma scrip crashed 10.96 per cent last week to close at Rs 1069.33. Apart from the general meltdown in the market sentiment, reports that a new excise duty has been imposed on drugs hastened the slide in the stock price. Excise duty would be levied on the maximum retail price from January 8 onwards against the earlier practice of calculating excise on factory price. According to analysts, this may force pharma companies to raise prices of their products to pass on the higher duty. Meanwhile, Ranbaxy announced last week that it has so far made three filings of its anti-Retrovirals to the USFDA (Food and Drug Administration) for approval.
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