Ruling out the possibility of a hostile takeover for Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers (MCFL), Zuari Agro's Saroj Poddar reiterated that he will sell his stake in MCF to the highest bidder if a joint venture (JV) with Vijay Mallya's UB Group is not forthcoming.
“Zuari bought these shares after talking to Mallya. We in principle had agreed that the UB Group and Zuari will work on MCFL as a JV. It is true that Mallya at the annual general meeting of MCFL indicated that he has no intention of doing a JV,” Poddar told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. Poddar, who holds over 16 percent in MCF, said that he was interested in both, the JV and buying out Mallya's MCF shares. Deepak Fertilisers has also been jostling to take over the Rs 3000-crore company. However, no offers by them have been received by Zuari yet, he added. He expects significantly higher premium for the stake sale and hopes to close a deal either way by January-February 2014. Poddar is the chairman of USD 3 billion Adventz group and the son-in-law of veteran industrialist KK Birla. Some of his high-profile JVs include Gillette India, which is a JV with FMCG giant P&G's arm, the Gillette Company of USA. The other is Hettich India Private Ltd, a JV with Germany's Hettich group. Also, Poddar-promoted Texmaco Rail & Engineering is hopeful of buying out Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers) by December. Also Read: Zuari Agro reports net loss of Rs 39.80cr in Q2Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
