Daewoo Picks Up Majority Stake In Crb Securities

South Korean giant Daewoo has increased its stake in CRB Daewoo Securities, which was formerly its 50:50 joint venture with the C R Bhansali group.

CRB Daewoo is the third company where Daewoo has become the majority partner. The other two are DCM Daewoo, the car manufacturer, and Daewoo Anchor Electronics, a consumer electronics firm.

Business Standard had reported that the relationship between CRB and Daewoo was strained. Sources said Daewoo had served an ultimatum on CRB to either buy out its stake or sell out.

Daewoo's exact stakeholding could not be ascertained but highly placed sources confirmed that Daewoo has upped its stake from the earlier 50 per cent mark.

 

The name of the joint venture company has been already "unofficially" changed to Daewoo Securities from CRB Daewoo Securities.

Senior executives of both companies declined to comment on the stakeholding pattern of the new company.

On being asked how much stake Daewoo holds in the new unit, Tushar Sarda of Daewoo Securities declined to comment, while another official, on the condition of anonymity, said that the company will be officially renamed Daewoo Securities from April 1.

Attempts to reach C G Kim, chief representative of the Korean conglomerate in India, were futile.

His office said Kim was on tour and would be coming back to India only in April.

S K Jain, former vice chairman of CRB Capital, however, confirmed that the Daewoo has gained the majority stake, but denied that the company has been rechristened Daewoo Securities.

Any change in nomenclature can be carried out only after receiving a registrar of companies clearance, which has not come so far, he said.

CR Bhansali was not available for comments.

While a section of the market says that Daewoo holds a whopping 95 per cent stake in the new company, officials from Daewoo Securities maintained that Daewoo's stake is in the region of 70 per cent.

They said the "secrecy" is adopted since Daewoo is yet to receive the approval from Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

Daewoo had earlier written a letter to C R Bhansali, the chairman of the group, asking him to decide on whether the CRB group is going to pick up Daewoo's stake in the company, or is willing to sell off its stake to Daewoo.