The Hindu Business Line : Takeover talk doesn't bother promoters

Mumbai June 9 Hostile takeovers may be in the air with rumours of Hindalco being a potential target. But an overwhelming majority of promoters of blue-chip corporates in the country certainly aren't worried.

They are not rushing to shore up their stakes if the data on shareholding pattern furnished by them is anything to go by. Of the 50 companies constituting the stock index Nifty 50, promoters' stake has gone up in just nine companies during fiscal 2006-07.

The average increase, such as it is, is also a mere 6.3 percentage points, aided largely by the hike in the promoters' stakes in Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications.

As many as 21 companies have a promoters' stake that is less than 51 per cent. Prominent among them is Satyam (8.8%), Infosys (16.5%), and M&M (17.7%). But the average has been boosted by companies with a substantially large promoters' stake. These number 26.

Besides a few public sector giants such as SAIL (85.8%) and NALCO (87.2%), there are quite a few private companies with a large promoters' stake. Among them are Sterlite Industries with 79.2 per cent, and Dabur with 73.8 per cent.

Then, of course, there is Tata Consultancy Services (81.6%) and Wipro (79.5%), which are perhaps the more celebrated examples.

On average, promoters held 51.75 per cent stake in 47 of the Nifty 50 companies. L&T, ICICI Bank, and HDFC are the companies which have declared that they do not have any identified promoters.

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Takeover talk doesn't bother promoters