By IANS,
Kolkata : Tobacco-to-hotels major ITC Ltd will not make any takeover bid on East India Hotels, a top company official said here Friday.
ITC, through its wholly-owned investment arm Russell Credit Ltd, holds 14.98 percent share in EIH Ltd, which runs Kolkata’s Oberoi Grand hotel.
“EIH is a very good investment. We will not make any hostile takeover bid on anybody,” ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar said at the company’s 98th annual general meeting.
Between January and March, ITC acquired 93,943 shares in EIH, raising its holding to 14.98 percent, taking it just 78,333 short of triggering an open offer.
According to the Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers regulation of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, a company has to make a mandatory open offer for an additional 20 percent once its holding in an entity reaches 15 percent.
Dwelling on expansion plans, Deveshwar said a new hotel Bangalore hotel was ready, but that ITC would wait for the market to look up.
“The market is down. So we are not keen to open it right now. We will open it after completing everything”.
Another hotel, in Chennai, would be ready by December 2010, he said.