The scrip of Nocil, an Arvind Mafatlal group company, witnessed a 52 per cent jump during the last one month on rumours that Indian Oil Corporation and Reliance Industries were eyeing stake in the company.
The stock ended at Rs 11.65 on Monday from May 2 close of Rs 7.65. From the Friday's close, the stock rose 12.02 per cent. The volume on Monday was heavy at 6.77 lakh shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
According to dealers, the rumours are also strong that the company might sell off its huge land holding to Reliance, which is propping up the share price.
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Recently, the board of directors of Nocil, at a meeting held on May 21, 2002, decided to close down the petrochemicals division situated at Thane-Belapur road, Navi Mumbai, with immediate effect and apply for permission to declare closure under the Industrial Disputes Act.
As a prelude to this, the management had offered a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to all its employees working in the division in first fortnight of May 2002. The scheme was fairly successful as almost all the management staff have submitted their applications and about 410 employees in the non-management category have opted to leave the company under the scheme.
The company, however, announced that the operations at the rubber chemicals and plastics divisions will continue uninterrupted.
According to the rumours, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was also planning to buy a stake in Nocil in an attempt to fulfill its ambitious plans in the chemicals sector. An IOC team had earlier visited Nocil's Thane plant to assess the project's viability recently, sources said.
Incorporated in 1961, Nocil is a part of the Arvind Mafatlal group in collaboration with Royal Dutch (Netherlands)/Shell (UK). The company manufactures a wide range of petrochemicals: ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene and their derivatives, polymers, rubber, chemicals and plastic products. Its clients include Good Year, Bridgestone, Yokohama and General Tyres. It has also tied-up with Dow Elanco, of the US, to establish a joint venture De-NOCIL Crop Protection, a deemed public company, to manufacture and market crop protection products in India. It has got two investment subsidiaries also: Ensen Holdings and Urvija Investments.
Meanwhile, Nocil, in a restructuring bid, had split the company into three companies: Nocil Petrochemicals, Nocil Rubber and Nocil Plastics.
The company had made a loss of Rs 25.44 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2002, compared with a net profit of Rs 4.37 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Total income (net of excise) declined to Rs 105.83 crore (Rs 229.16 crore). In the financial year 2001-02, the company posted a net loss of Rs 70.49 crore compared with a net profit of Rs 10.81 crore in the previous fiscal. Total income (net of excise) dipped to Rs 672.31 crore (Rs 889.86 crore).