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May 9, 2001
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Sebi clears Damani open offer for VST

Bs Bureau

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has cleared Brightstar Investment's open offer for 20 per cent of VST Industries, the Hyderabad-based tobacco company. Brightstar, the investment firm owned by the Bombay-based Damani brothers, has already acquired 15.5 per cent of VST Industries, the country's second largest tobacco company after ITC Ltd.

John Band, CEO of ASK Raymond James-the merchant banker handling the open offer for Brightstar-said that the merger and acquisitions department of the market watchdog on Tuesday gave its nod to the open offer.

Following the approval, the Damani brothers are considering such details of the open offer as price and the period through which the offer would be open, Band said, adding that the final offer letter would be finalised in the next few days.

Band said: "We have maintained from the beginning that the Damanis had not done anything wrong for which they could be barred from making the open offer."

Brightstar's offer would now run parallel with the counter-offer by Russell Credit Ltd, an ITC subsidiary, which has bid for 20 per cent of VST Industries. The counter-offer has already opened at a price of Rs 115.

Brightstar had initially priced its open offer at Rs 112. Russell Credit could not be contacted for comments.

JR Varma, Sebi executive director looking into the matter, had earlier said that if the Damanis were allowed to go ahead with their open offer, Russell Credit's open offer would be extended so that both offers could close on the same day. The battle between Russell Credit and Brightstar is now set to heat up, as a revised offer by the latter may induce Russel Credit to rework its pricing too.

Both Russell Credit and Brightstar are actively buying the VST Industries stock from the open market. While the ITC subsidiary has picked up over one per cent through open market operations, Brightstar has raised its stake to over 15 per cent since it submitted its open offer for Sebi clearance.

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