Essel Group ups stake in IVRCL, moves past promoters

Two Essel Group entities have acquired 5.56 million shares of IVRCL on April 2 and April 3

Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel Group has hiked its stake in  IVRCL to 12.27% by purchasing an additional 2.08% stake from open market, upping the ante for the battle to gain control over the Hyderabad-based infrastructure firm.

Two Essel Group entities - Asian Satellite Broadcast Private and Jay Properties Private - have acquired 5.56 million shares of IVRCL on April 2 and April 3, according to a disclosure made to the stock exchanges. Last week, Essel Group said it had acquired 10.19% stake in IVRCL through open market purchases.

With the latest acquisition of shares, Essel Group now owns more stake than IVRCL's promoters. As per the shareholding data on the BSE, IVRCL promoters, led by its founder E Sudhir Reddy, have 11.18% stake in the company.

“It’ll sound premature now, if we react to this development,” IVRCL chairman and managing director E Sudhir Reddy had told Business Standard on Monday about the takeover intentions of Essel Group. At that time, He had said that the promoters would evaluate monetary and other implications of Essel's stake hike "only if the latter tried to further increase its holding in IVRCL”.

IVRCL shares were trading 3.68% higher at Rs 71.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at 2 pm on Wednesday.