The Hindu Business Line : Saregama Ind on song

THE stock of Saregama Industries Ltd surged sharply on the bourses on Wednesday amidst good volumes. The reason for the uptrend has been attributed to a statement made by the RPG Group Vice-Chairman, Mr Sanjiv Goenka in New Delhi that the company is likely to come out with an IPO for its retail formats, Spencer's and Music World in the first quarter of the next fiscal.

Given that Saregama holds a significant stake of Music World Entertainment Ltd, the news was deemed a definite positive by the market, hence the run up at the counter.

Music World officials confirmed that Saregama Industries holds upwards of 35 per cent stake in the company. As of September 30, 2004, Music World holds 9.17 per cent stake in Saregama Industries.

When contacted analysts maintain that there has been some amount of renewed interest at this counter ever since the company reworked its business model.

The music of `Dhoom' doing well and the music of the soon to be released Arindham Chaudhri film `Rok sako to rok lo' also meeting with a favourable response, has lent an underlying note of optimism to the counter.

The stock of Saregama Industries was range-bound in the first week of December hovering around Rs 77-Rs 79 levels.

Post the IPO announcement, the stock ended the day 9.24 per cent higher on the BSE at Rs 86.30 with around 1.37 lakh shares traded. On the NSE, the stock ended at Rs 86, up 8.93 per cent, with around 2.88 lakh shares traded.