Ludhiana to complete disinvestment by Sept 14

The Ludhiana Stock Exchange (LSE) will complete the process of disinvestment of its stake by September 14.

The governing board of the LSE had earlier constituted a five-member disinvestment committee that was broad-based to 15 members by the board of the exchange in its meeting held on June 4 to have better views and discussions on the subject.

This committee has been meeting frequently to explore various options before the exchange for successfully implementing demutualisation scheme of the exchange.

The LSE has to ensure that by September 14 at least 51 percent of its shares are held by public other than the shareholders having trading rights in accordance with Securities Contract (Regulations) Act, 1956.

According to HS Sidhu, managing director, the governing board of the exchange said that the committee in its recent meeting approved draft advertisement for 51 percent disinvestment in terms of the demutualisation scheme approved by SEBI.

"The exchange is releasing the advertisement in all major national and regional dailies soon," he added.

In terms of SEBI guidelines on disinvestment, a strategic or individual investor should not be a shareholder of LSE having trading rights. Persons or entities interested can bid either collectively or individually, subject to prior approval of SEBI and maximum ceiling of 5 percent for one entity or bidder.

The committee has also decided to appoint an adviser for assisting in smooth implementation of the scheme and finding suitable strategic partners. The exchange has appointed Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu as its valuer, he said.

The valuation of the exchange is likely to be completed soon and the exchange is hopeful of finding suitable investors for offloading its share, he informed.

LSE is finding it hard to offload 51 per cent stake, required under the demutualisation scheme, due to lack of equity trading facility and a proper business model.