Confirming this, top Sebi sources told The Financial Express that a suggestion has been made to the regulator to call all those parties involved in the 10 hostile bids and get them to meet the Bhagwati panel on takeovers. "Those involved in these hostile bids, who want to meet the panel, can be called. This will add value to the changes proposed to be made in the code and make the regulations more realistic," a top regulatory official said. The Bhagwati panel is in the process of finetuning the code further.

This will mean that the panel may meet, among others, parties like Sterlite, GESCO Corporation, the AH Dalmia group, Bombay Dyeing and, maybe, even Calcutta jute baron Arun Bajoria, the officials said. There have been, in all, 10 hostile bids, if one takes into account the Bombay Dyeing-Bajoria case as a takeover case and adds the GESCO-Dalmia battle as well. Of these, two are pending, two have failed, two have met with partial success, two were withdrawn and another two have ended up in the courts, officials said.

A meeting of the Bhagwati panel on takeovers is slated for November 13 and 14 amidst the backdrop of two hostile cases - one for GESCO Corporation and the other being Mr Bajoria's acquisition of Bombay Dyeing shares.

In the GESCO case too, the hostilities have intensified with GESCO making allegations against the Dalmia group and an official of their investment banker ASK-Raymond James.

On the issue of whether acquirers should be made to go for a full 100 per cent open offer, and not for just 20 per cent additional shares in the target company, Sebi officials argued that of 1,000 cases where the benefits of the code have been availed, only 10 hostile bids had come. "The point, therefore, is the issue serious enough? There have so far been only 10 hostile cases if one includes the two latest cases," officials argued.

The other point the officials said is if the open offer level is hiked to a higher level or to 100 per cent, and bank funding for takeovers continues to be a problem, it is as good as banning hostile bids itself. "Instead of banning hostile bids, hiking the offer level would be another way of doing the same thing as there is no bank funding," Sebi sources said.

However, the regulator is clear that if suggestions come, the panel will deliberate on the issues. Recently, a section of industrialists had petitioned Sebi to consider relaxing the creeping acquisition limits and hiking the open offer level to over 20 per cent or even to 100 per cent.