Deepak shows waning interest in MCFL with 12% stake sale

Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corp on Monday offloaded nearly half of its stake in Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd (MCFL), indicating its loss of interest in taking over the company.

Deepak Fertilisers sold a little over 12 per cent of its stake through bulk deals on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

Data from the bourses showed that the Pune-based company sold over 80.83 lakh shares at an average price of Rs87.78 on the BSE; and on the NSE, it sold 62.22 lakh shares at an average price of Rs87.95. The shares were held by subsidiary SCM Soilfert.

According to the shareholding data of MCFL for the quarter ended December, SCM Soilfert held 3.44 crore shares, a stake of 29.05 per cent. Today it sold 1.43 crore shares accounting for 12.07 per cent of MCFL's equity.

Deepak Fertilisers had been involved in a race with the Zuari Group for control of MCFL. In December last year, Zuari announced that it would spend Rs398.2 crore to buy up to a 36.56 per cent stake in MCFL. The amount was about 10 per cent more than its earlier offer.

The Vijay Mallya-led UB group had a 21.97-per cent stake in MCFL then, while Zuari and Deepak Fertilisers owned 16.47 per cent and 31.25 per cent, respectively. The revised open offer, which was recently approved by the Competition Commission of India, was at a price of Rs91.92 per share.

Deepak Fertilisers did not launch a counter-offer but instead sold some of its stake in MCFL.

The battle for MCFL was triggered in July 2013 when Zuari bought about 10 per cent in MCFL through the open market. This was followed by Deepak Fertilisers acquiring a 24.46 per cent stake.