AP govt gets bids of Rs 74 cr for stake sale

NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh government has received bids worth about Rs 74 crore for sale of its stake in five companies, including VST Industries, Tata Motors and Associated Cement Companies.
"The bids were upto our expectations. These will be taken up by a Cabinet Sub-Committee on September 4. The successful bidders would be announced on the same day," said Sunil Manocha, the Financial Advisor in Andhra Pradesh Implementation Secretariat.
Russel Credit, a 100 per cent subsidiary of country''s biggest cigarette maker ITC, has made the highest bid of Rs 215 per share for buying the 4.69 per cent stake of the state government in VST, he said over phone from Hyderabad.
The VST scrip closed at Rs 174.9 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday.
Various companies including Godfrey Phillips arm- Chase Investment, stock broker R L Damani and IL&FS Investmart were in the fray to buy the Andhra government stake in VST.
However, re-bids would be called for sale of the 0.51 per cent equity in automaker Tata Motors as UTI Mutual Fund and Life Insurance Corporation have bid at the same price of Rs 245 per share as against Friday''s closing of Rs 280.1, Manocha said.
For ACC, GIC has submitted the highest bid of Rs 200 a share for buying the state government''s 0.44 per cent equity in the cement major.
UTI Mutual Fund and LIC had bid at the same price of Rs 195 per share. The ACC scrip closed at Rs 212.4 on Friday.
Besides, the highest bid of Rs 67 per share was received from Aravalli Securities and Finance for the 6.34 per cent equity of the Andhra government in Sirpur Paper Mills.
Aravalli Securities, which already has 30 per cent stake in Sirpur Paper Mills, was followed by CD Equi Research which bid at Rs 61 per share.
However, no bids were made for buying the 4.27 per cent stake of the state government in Hyderabad Industries, Manocha said.
The sale of stake in these companies was being done in accordance with the decision of the Andhra government to exit from any commercial activity, he said, adding the proceeds of the sell-off would be used for social purposes.