The shares of Eicher Ltd will continue to be listed on its regional stock exchange Delhi, Mumbai and National Stock Exchange (NSE). However, an Eicher official who could not confirm the need for a buy offer, said that the companies have complied with all the requirements of Sebi including disclosure in the annual report and approval from the shareholders.

According to Sebi guidelines, any company opting for voluntary delisting would have to make arrangements to give buy-offer to all the shareholders in that particular region. This decision was taken at the market regulator'sboard meeting on March 27 this year.

The Eicher Ltd scrip has shot up from Rs 30 to Rs 39 in five trading sessions on BSE. The price dropped back to Rs 33 on Wednesday.

The companies have decided to cut down the cost by delisting their shares from these exchanges where they are hardly traded. Besides, with the listing of these shares on the NSE, they are available to investors across the country.Confirming the move, a company spokesman said "we have already taken approval of the shareholders last month at the annual general meetings as required under the SEBI guidelines". The board of directors of both the companies approved the resolution recently. If the two Eicher companies make an open offer, they will have to shell out money to buy shares from the holding public in these regions to delist shares. This may come in the way of the companies' efforts to cut costs.Eicher Motors is delisting shares from Calcutta, Delhi, Bangalore, Madras and Ahmedabad owing to low frequency and small trading volumes. Theshares will continue to be listed at Mumbai, NSE and the Madhya Pradesh stock exchange at Indore, which is also the company's regional bourse.Meanwhile, the price of Eicher Motors shot up by 18 per cent to Rs 11 on the BSE on Tuesday. The price remained stagnant on Wednesday. According to market sources, there was expectation of an open offer from Eicher Motors at a premium to the current market price. ``The game is to buy at BSE or NSE and get the shares transferred to any of the other exchanges, where delisting is to take place and opt for company's open offer,'' said a market participant.However, there have been few takers for open-offer at a premium to the market price. ``Such a move will be discrimanatory against shareholders at other stock exchanges. The company cannot pay Rs 15 to a shareholder in Ahmedabad when the share price in Mumbai is Rs 11,'' pointed out a Delhi-based broker. Sebi guidelines are silent on the determination of the buy-offer. ``The move to delist will help shareholders since itwill bring down the floating stock and in turn, boost the price on other exchanges,'' added the broker. The road to delisting is also thwart with other problems like identifying shareholders under each of the stock exchanges. The company will also have to fix a record-date to ascertain the number of shareholders in each of the exchanges.Eicher Motors has a paid-up capital of Rs 20 crore as of March 31, 1998 with a 46 per cent stake with promoters, 32 per cent with the public and the rest with banks, financial institutions and other body corporates.The company posted a profit of Rs 3.8 crore on a total income of Rs 265 crore for the year ended March 31, 1998. However, for the first quarter of current fiscal, the company had incurred a loss of Rs 66 lakh. uŻ