Mah Scooters Vrooms On Selloff Scuttlebutt

The Maharashtra Scooters scrip, perhaps for the first time in memory, went up to hit the 20 per cent circuit in mid-afternoon trades. It was locked at Rs 54.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The state government is learnt to be putting the company on the block as part of its exercise to divest stake in state undertakings.

Dealers said, at the upper circuit level, buy orders for more than 20,000 shares were pending with the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 47.40 while more than one lakh shares were traded on the BSE. Last year in September, the scrip price had hit a low of Rs 15.55, but gained nearly 250 per cent since then to come up to its current levels.

Expectations of the state government divesting its stake in Maharashtra Scooters have been around since the last three years. Bajaj Auto which already holds a stake of 24 per cent in the state-owned company was a keen aspirant for the government's stake. The government holds a stake of 27 per cent through the Western Maharashtra Development Corporation. But somehow, the deal never happened, partly due to labour troubles in the company.

The company manufactures both two and three-wheelers. Its manufacturing facilities are situated in Satara in Maharashtra. Bajaj Auto supplies CKD (completely knocked down) kits to the company which are then assembled and sold through the wide distribution network of Bajaj.