MUMBAI, February 6: The acquisition of one lakh shares of Blue Dart by an unknown investor has unnerved the management. Blue Dart is one of the leading courier companies in the country.The deal, which is believed to have been brokered by a local brokerage house, took place at the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The deal accounts for about 1.13 per cent of the company's equity.
The management of the company has been alarmed at the size and nature of the deal and has approached the BSE to seek details of the same. The exchange has turned down the company's request.
"The relatively illiquid counter suddenly saw a huge deal of over 1 lakh shares transacted at the prevailing market price," said Rajiv Kankhare, company secretary of Blue Dart, when contacted by The Financial Express.
"We, therefore, tried to obtain information on the details of the deal from the exchange but this proved to be futile," he said.
BSE sources said that the exchange turned down the request of the company on theground that such sensitive information could not be revealed under any circumstances.
According to officials, the exchange's code of conduct does not provide for dissemination of such "insider information" to a third party.
The Blue Dart counter has been relatively illiquid, registering minuscule volumes of 200-500 shares on an average, despite the fact that the company's equity stands at about Rs 22.8 crore.
The three promoters together hold about 69 per cent of the total equity. According to market sources, the chairman of the company, Tushar Jani, individually holds about 30 per cent of the equity. The public holding in the company is approximately 18.57 per cent, government holding is 3.26 per cent and local and foreign institutions together hold about 4.14 per cent of the equity of the company. Of this, UTI alone holds about 0.77 per cent of the equity.
On February 4, the highly illiquid counter suddenly witnessed a market deal of 1 lakh shares at a price of Rs 26 on the BSE. The unusual jump inthe volume by over 5,000 per cent has disturbed the company management which fears the possibility of an imbalance in the equity pattern of the promoters of the company.
"Considering the performance of the company, buying its shares merely as an investment initiative seems unlikely," commented a fund manager at an FII brokerage firm. The company secretary of the firm however said that it was unlikely that this was an attempt to takeover the company.
"The high cost factor due to its recent diversification into cargo services which has led to falling margins with the constantly increasing interest burden has made the counter highly unattractive," said a fund manager.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
