The Concor price was brought down to Rs 250 by BSE after the government's divestment of 9 million shares in the company fetched the same price.The Concor scrip was last traded at Rs 378 on the BSE on October 15 ahead of the Rs 225-crore divestment plan. After the adjustment of the price, the scrip was traded at Rs 250 on November 30. This means a decline of Rs 128 on the previous traded price of Rs 378.

As on March 31, 1998, MSGF held 18.46 lakh shares of the company. Given the Rs 128 adjustment in the price, it would have led to a fall of 30 paise in the NAV. Instead, the NAV of the fund has seen a rise from Rs 8.87 on November 27 to Rs 9.05 on December 4. During the same period, the sensex lost 77 points. This means that the fund outperformed the sensex by 4.69 per cent during theweek!

``The fund has surprised the market since it has gained despite the huge holding in Concor. We expected the price adjustment to make a definite impact in its December 4 NAV,'' said a market participant. Market sources point out that the fund has been able to sprung a surprise since it was in constant touch with Warburg Dillon Read, the lead managers to the issue.According to sources close to the fund, Morgan Stanley approached the lead manager in early September to get an idea on the likely price of the offer.

"The step was taken to ensure that the NAV did not get hit if the offered price was at a substantial discount to the prevailing price in the market," said a market source. However, officials of Morgan Stanley Asset Management refused to comment. While Concor was not traded in September, it was traded at a price of Rs 440 on August 18. ``The lead manager gave a price range of Rs 320-350 for the issue after which the fund made a downward adjustment in the price at Rs 350,'' he elaborated.However, it is not clear how the adjustment was made since there were no gyrations in the NAV.

``Since the fund discloses NAV on a weekly basis, may be the NAV recovered during the week,'' says a fund analyst.

According to sources, the fund again approached the lead manager in early November, when a price of Rs 270 to Rs 300 was indicated. ``An adjustment was again made in NAV at Rs 300 while the last traded price was Rs 378 on BSE,'' they added.

An adjustment at Rs 300 still leaves a gap of Rs 50 per share. According to an estimate, this should have pulled down the NAV by 12 paise. However, the NAV has instead moved up from Rs 8.87 to Rs 9.05 when the scrip was traded on November 30 at Rs 250. ``As adjustments were made earlier, may be the fund made an adjustment at a price of Rs 250 in November which was the price offered by institutional investors for Concor shares,'' said a fund analyst.