Indian paints major Asian Paints has submitted a preliminary bid to acquire up to half of Israeli company, Tambour.

The talks with Tambour's parent company, Granite Hacarmel Investments, are still at a preliminary stage and no negotiations had resulted yet from contacts with the leading Indian company, a source close to the Israeli company was quoted as saying by the business daily Globes.

Tambour has notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that it had received a number of inquiries from companies interested in buying its shares.

Granite Hacarmel plans to issue 15-20 per cent of Tambour at a company value of NIS 300-350 million (NIS -- New Israeli Shekels).

As per the report in the Globes, the company's performance slumped last year when its profit was reduced to 2 million shekels (about Rs 20 million) on sales of 380 million shekels.