HB Stockholdings ups DSIL stake to 27.45%

"DSIL now cannot pass a special resolution without our consent. We do not plan to do market purchase," said an official at HB Stockholdings. DSIL owned 12.87 per cent before the open offer.

HB Stockholdings has bought 3,36,000 shares through the open offer. The shares were bought at the rate of Rs 130 apiece. It was able to purchase 19,10,427 shares from the market since the day the open offer was announced on November 19, 2007.

Bhasin's company has managed to increase its stake in DSIL from 12.87 per cent to 27.45 per cent at an investment of over Rs 26 crore. The promoters of DSIL, led by Tilak Dhar, have already raised their stake from 32.54 to 40.7 per cent through the issue of warrants and can sit pretty. Had the open offer got fully subscribed, Bhasin would have ended with a stake higher than that of DSIL promoters. The DSIL scrip on the BSE closed at Rs 109.40 on Thursday, down 3.65 per cent.

HB Stockholdings had filed a petition with the Company Law Board (CLB) in November last year against the issue of warrants by the company to its promoters. The warrant issue would affect the interest of minority shareholders, the company had claimed. The case is still with CLB and the next date of hearing is July 22. DSIL promoters, however, have completed the warrant issue.

DSIL was established in 1990, following the three-way split of DCM. Almost 50 per cent of the turnover of DSIL is coming from its sugar business. It has a unit at Daurala (Meerut) in Uttar Pradesh with a capacity of 11,000 tonnes crushed daily (tcd). It also makes pharmaceutical grade sugar and Indian made foreign liquor.

Bhasin was the broker for Swraj Paul when he mounted a hostile takeover bid for Escorts and Delhi Cloth Mills (it subsequently changed its name to DCM) in the mid-1980s.

The bid came to naught and Bhasin ended up with a sizeable stake in DCM. In 1990, the Shriram family-owned DCM split and Bhasin got a stake in all the splinter companies, including DSIL.