Swedish Match to sell Wimco stake to ITC subsidiary
02 Jul 2005
Kolkata: Swedish Match has announced that it is selling its entire stake in Wimco to Russell Credit Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC. No financial details of the deal were however announced. Swedish Match held 74 per cent equity in Wimco, which manufactures matchboxes.
A statement by Swedish Match said that it would also make an open offer for acquiring a 20 per cent stake in the company as per a SEBI ruling in 2002. A Russell Credit statement said the company would acquire an additional 2 per cent stake from the Swedish Match group after the latter makes its open offer. This would take the total stake of the ITC subsidiary in Wimco to 76 per cent.
Wimco owns brands such as Ship, Homelite and Tekka. The company made losses of Rs42.7 crore in 2004-05 and Rs71.50 crore in 2003-04.
The company statement said the entire transaction (open offer and the subsequent sell off to Russell Credit) is expected to be closed latest by the fourth quarter 2005.
