The board of ITC Classic, which met for the last time yesterday prior to the dissolution of the company and its amalgamation with the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation (ICICI), has set the date of formal transfer of shares from the company to ICICI on June 4.
According to sources, the board meeting was routine and the directors reviewed the developments leading to the smooth clearance of the merger by various courts.
The board also discussed the proposed disposal of the two subsidiary companies of the NBFC, ITC Classic Home Finance and Classic Share and Stock Broking Services.
Sources have ruled out any auction for these companies as this would lead to an unnecessary bidding war.
Moreover, these two subsidiaries are liquid companies with positive net worth Rs 10.6 crore and Rs 10 crore, respectively, as on March 31, 1997, and will be sold as running concerns.
The application for removal of Classics name from the Registrar of Companies is also pending and is expected to be cleared in the near future.
While the merger has been formally cleared by the legal authorities, the company officials are now in the process of winding up Classic, the process which is likely to be completed within the next six weeks.
The winding-up process of the company will culminate in the companys managing director Mukesh Palta moving back to the parent concern, ITC Ltd, from where he had been sent to tackle the task of charting the future of the beleaguered NBFC, which was saddled with losses to the tune of Rs 285 crore on March 31, 1997. In the six months ended September 31, 1997, net losses swelled to Rs 7.39 crore from a net profit of Rs 5.28 lakh in the corresponding period of the previous year.
At the moment, ICICI has taken over operations at the Classic offices in Poonam Apartment and Kemwell Manor in Calcutta after its staff have been formally redeployed at ICICI and I-Credit. Classics staff is now involved in marketing ICICI products. The processing of fixed deposits for the company will be taken over by ICICI shortly.
ITC Classic was set up in July 1 986 by ITC with the primary objective of providing financial services.
The company had a strong retail distribution network with 10 offices, 12 franchisees and had an investor base of over 7,00,000 depositors.
