ICRA surges 20% as promoters raise open offer price

MUMBAI: Shares of ratings agency ICRA surged 20 per cent intraday after promoters Moody’s raised its open offer price to Rs 2400 per share from Rs 2000 earlier.

The promoters hold 28.51 per cent stake in ICRA and on February 2014 made an open offer to acquire an additional 26.5 percent in the company.

Birla Sun Life AM holds 8.91 per cent, LIC owns 6.69 per cent, Templeton has 5.38 per cent, GIC holds 5.23 per cent and PNB owns 5.01 per cent stake in ICRA.

ICRA reported in-line net profit and strong margin expansion for quarter ended March 2014

“Overall operating profit surged 45 per cent YoY (adjusted 44% YoY), while adjusted margin spiked by 943bps YoY to 38.8 per cent. A strong positive was the ratings segment EBIT margin increasing by 94bps YoY to 52.9%. This led to 9% YoY growth in ratings’ EBIT,” said Edelweiss report.

Edelweiss has ‘Buy’ rating on the stock with a revised target price of Rs 2,300 from Rs 1,780 earlier.

At 10:30 a.m.; ICRA was at Rs 2,305, up 15.25 per cent, on the BSE. It touched a high of Rs 2,400 and a low of Rs 2,000 in trade today.