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Offloading of stake to SABI -- Mysore Brew, arm may go for dislisting

Our Bureau

BANGALORE, July 2

MYSORE Breweries Ltd (MBL) and its subsidiary Pals Distilleries Ltd are likely to exercise the delisting option following their promoters' decision to offload majority stake to South African Breweries India (SABI) Ltd.

The shares of MBL are listed on the Bangalore Stock Exchange, while Pals is listed on the Bombay, Bangalore and Madras stock exchanges.

SABI on June 27 signed an agreement with the promoters to acquire their 75.77 per cent stake in MBL's equity share capital. This gives SABI a controlling stake in MBL and its subsidiary, Pals Distilleries Ltd (PDL). MBL holds 60.67 per cent stake in PDL' s paid-up equity share capital.

The delisting possibility looms large as SABI on Monday through newspaper advertisements announced an open offer to MBL's public shareholders to acquire 5,23,630 fully paid-up equity shares, representing 24.23 per cent of the voting capital, at a price o f Rs 500 per share.

SABI also made a similar open offer to PDL's public shareholders to acquire 24,68,709 fully paid-up equity share of the company, constituting 39.33 per cent of the voting capital, at a price of Rs 35 per share. It must be mentioned that all shares pursua nt to this offer will be acquired by MBL only.

Reliable sources said that delisting of both the companies were in the offing as the open offer was expected to generate good response.

If as a result of the offer, the public shareholding falls to 10 per cent or below, in accordance with SEBI regulations, SABI will make a second offer within three months to purchase the remaining outstanding equity shares held by the public.