Mumbai, Mar 12: Business proceeded as usual at Hindustan Lever the day after Sebi's insider trading charges over the Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd merger rocked the company. The company announced the scheduling of a meeting to decide on the vital swap ratio for the next merger with associate Pond's India Ltd.The boards of Pond's (India) Ltd and Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) will meet separately on March 16, 1998 to decide on the exchange ratio for formulating the scheme of amalgamation of Pond's with HLL, according to a joint statement issued by the two companies.
The release said that nine stock exchanges of India have been notified regarding the meetings of the two companies taking place on Monday.
The management closed ranks and is believed to have met in Mumbai at the World Trade Centre, along with representatives of law firms Amardas Mangalchand, among others.
The two managements had announced on February 12, 1998, the decision to propose the amalgamation of Pond's India with HLL. The release said: "The announcement of the intended amalgamation was made at that early and preliminary stage to put the information in public domain and to make it available to the stock markets and investors in general." Public disclosure has become a major issue. The announcement of the meetings to decide on the swap ratio on Thursday comes a day after Sebi delivered its stern verdict against the company and five of its directors on indulging in an unscrupulous act of insider trading in the run-up to merging erstwhile Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd with HLL.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
