Mrpl Spurts On Pie Sale Buzz

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), the Aditya Birla Group company, on Wednesday witnessed hectic buying on media reports that the Reliance group is close to acquiring 37.5 per cent stake in the company.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the stock settled up 5.60 per cent at Rs 11.30, but off from intraday high of Rs 11.60, with 9.33 lakh shares changing hands on the counter. In the last 10 trading sessions between May 21 and June 4, the stock has risen 56.2 per cent to Rs 10.70 from Rs 6.85. During the same period, volumes reached a high of 8.16 lakh shares on 4 June 2002 and a low of 19,950 shares on 22 May 2002.

 

Dealers at a local brokerage house said, "The rise in activity on the counter is largely owing to media reports that Reliance Industries is nearing a deal with the AV Birla group to purchase the latter's 37.5 per cent stake in MRPL."

Also, the price offered by Reliance is higher than that offered by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL). Earlier, SBI Capital and Arthur Andersen, the independent valuers jointly appointed by HPCL and Aditya Birla group, had fixed the value per share in the range of Rs 14-17 .

There were reports earlier that HPCL was keen on buying out Birlas' stake but nothing concrete had taken place in that regard. It is understood that the Birla group has decided to pull out of MRPL because of continuing losses in operations. MRPL is facing a severe debt burden of over Rs 5,050 crore.