The Hindu Business Line : Actis makes open offer for Swaraj Mazda

ACTIS Capital LLP, a UK-based buyout firm, on Tuesday said that two of its units are making an open offer to acquire 25 per cent additional stake in Swaraj Mazda Ltd (SML).

The two units - CDC Agribusiness Management Ltd and South Asia Regional Fund (SARF) - are seeking to buy 2.62 million shares of Swaraj Mazda, a commercial vehicle manufacturing company, for Rs 315 each.

ICICI Securities Ltd is managing the share purchase, Actis Capital said. The cash offer would open on November 23 and close on December 13, and would be financed through funds received from CDC Group and its affiliates.

Actis already holds 14.51 per cent (directly and indirectly) of the equity share capital of SML.

The firm, through its entities including CDC-PTL, also owns 28.49 per cent stake in Punjab Tractors, which in turn holds about 29.04 per cent stake in SML.

On whether Actis would like to take management control of SML after the open offer, a spokesperson said that the firm has never interfered with the functioning of any company it has invested in. He added that India was a "very important" market for the firm.

Actis recently said that it is raising nearly $500 million to invest mostly in Indian assets.

Sources at Swaraj Mazda had earlier said that Actis was already helping the company in finding and facilitating new markets for exports.

The company will be actively targeting the African markets this year and is planning to increase total export volumes by over 50 per cent.

Incidentally, SML recently firmed up an aggressive plan to increase capacity by investing about Rs 160 crore over the next 3-4 years.

The investment would increase the company's production capacity to 36,000 vehicles from the current 10,000 units per year. It would also cover setting up of manufacturing facilities for transmission gears, and bus bodies/cargo boxes.

Shares of Swaraj Mazda closed at Rs 308.72 on the BSE today following the announcement by Actis, down by 2.28 per cent over the previous day's closing.

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Actis makes open offer for Swaraj Mazda