Birlas to reclassify holdings

The Birlas have decided to reclassify the shareholdings of all the group companies in order to remove the M P Birla group's holdings from the category of 'promoters'.

Sources in the Birla group informed that the Birla families, in June, decided in-principle to strip the M P Birla group "� now being managed by R S Lodha "� of the 'promoter' tag.

As a fallout, the Birla families removed the M P Birla group's 25 per cent holding from the promoters category in Pilani Investment and Industries Corporation, the flagship investment company of the Birla families.

The latest shareholding pattern of Pilani shows that the promoters hold 57.57 per cent stake in the outfit across 22 folios.

The holding of promoters in Pilani was earlier 83 per cent including the shares held by the M P Birla group. The entire holding of close to 25 per cent of the M P Birla group had been reclassified and placed in the category of private corporate bodies.

Kumar Mangalam Birla now has close to 50 per cent in Pilani, following the settlement with the S K Birla and C K Birla groups and acquisition of their shares.

The K K Birla group has close to 7 per cent, which too was committed for sale and transfer to the Kumar Mangalam-B K Birla branch of the Birla family.