Mangalore Chemicals up 12% on open offer buzz

Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers stock surged 12.5 percent in early trade Monday but it came off its intraday high on profit taking. A media report indicated that Deepak Fertiliser and Zuari may jointly make an open offer for controlling stake in Vijay Mallya's Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers (MCF).

"Pune-based Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals’ Sailesh Mehta might hold a meeting next week with Zuari Fertilisers & Chemicals’ Saroj Poddar to make an offer to buy out the latter’s stake in MCF. This would be the first time that the suitors would meet on a deal that could benefit both," a media report said.

Zuari Fertilisers promoter Saroj Poddar, on September 26, said he would sell his 16 percent stake in MCF if a joint venture with the firm's promoter UB Group does not materialise.

Poddar's statement comes two days after UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya had said that he was ready to buy stakes from Zuari and Deepak Fertilisers in MCF.

In UB group's MCF, Zuari currently has 16.43 percent stake while Pune-based Deepak Fertilisers has about 24.46 percent stake. Promoters hold 22 percent stake in the company as of June 2013.

At 10:59 hours IST, the stock rose 2.96 percent to Rs 53.90 amid hefty volumes on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

(With inputs from agencies)