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Kohinoor Mandal

KOLKATA, Jan. 28

INFAR India Ltd, which is currently in the process of becoming a 100-per cent wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dutch major Akzo Nobel NV, will apply for delisting from the stock exchanges in February.

Currently, the company has made the second open offer for a buyback of shares to minority shareholders. The offer, which opened in the beginning of this month, will close on February 3, 2002.

Akzo Nobel first bought the 25.53-stake held by the Indian partner in Infar India and then made an open offer to the minority shareholders in September last year to acquire the 24.04 per cent stake.

It offered Rs 285 per share for 14.61 lakh equity shares held by the minority shareholders. After the offer closed in October 13, Infar found that a seven-per cent stake was still lying around in the market. The current offer is aimed at buying out the remaining stake.

Company sources said there was a possibility of some disputed cases even after the closure of the second offer. ``Such cases always happen in a 100-per cent buyout and we will have to wait till the offer closes,'' sources told Business Line.

Meanwhile, a company executive said that Infar India would apply for delisting its scrip from the National Stock Exchange and the Calcutta Stock Exchange after the closure of the second offer. ``The formal application will be made sometime in the end of February, as per SEBI guidelines,'' the executive said.

Akzo Nobel is buying out the stakes in Infar India through its wholly owned subsidiary, Organon Participants BV. The offer is being managed by HSBC Securities & Capital Markets Ltd.

For the year ended December 31, 2000, Infar India registered a turnover of Rs 127 crore and profit after tax of Rs 12.36 crore.

In 2001, the company sold off is diagnostic business to the French company bioMerieux SA in a worldwide deal. Infar India got Rs 7 crore from the sale. The company has also decided to set up a new factory in Howrah for Rs 70 crore. In 1998, the company sold its stake in the veterinary business company, Intervet India, to the Netherlands-based Intervet International.

Globally, Akzo Nobel operates in three areas — pharma, chemicals and coatings. In India, its chemical business — Centak Chemicals — was being operated through a joint venture with the B.K. Birla group.

Last year, Akzo Nobel first bought the Birla stake and then that of the small shareholders to turn it into a wholly owned subsidiary.

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