Tata Steel has preponed the date of the open offer of Tata Sponge Iron to July 27 against the earlier plan of August 7. Consequently, the closing date of the issue has also been preponed to August 9 instead of August 22.

No specific reason was given for advancing the open offer date.

Tata Steel is making the voluntary open offer to acquire 11.26 per cent stake of Tata Sponge Iron at Rs 375 a share. The company will spend Rs 65 crore to raise its stake from 39.74 per cent to 51 per cent. Tata Sponge shares on the BSE were down 0.16 per cent at Rs 341.

Tata Steel has also made an offer to acquire 14 per cent stake in group firm Tinplate Company at Rs 60 a share. This offer will be open from August 6 to 22.

The company will invest Rs 88 crore for increasing its stake to 73.44 per cent from 59.44 per cent. Tinplate shares on BSE were down 0.18 per cent at Rs 55 on Thursday.

Tata Group has been using the recent fall in stock prices to increase its holding in group companies.

Earlier this month, Tata Sons increased stake in Tata Motors to 25.46 per cent from 25.41 per cent. It bought 12 lakh shares of Tata Motors on the NSE in two tranches for Rs 29.89 crore. Tata Sons now hold 70.15 crore shares of Tata Motors.

Similarly, Tata Sons acquired 4.78 per cent in Indian Hotels for Rs 497.47 crore through preferential allotment in June. Tata Sons holding had increased to 24.36 per cent from 19.58 per cent.

The Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, owned by Indian Hotels, currently has 93 hotels in 55 locations in India, with an additional 16 international hotels in the Maldives, Malaysia, Australia, the UK, the US, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Africa and the West Asia.

>suresh@thehindu.co.in

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