Ireland’s Independent News and Media (INM), sold a 7.3% stake in Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL) in a series of bulk deals yesterday and today. JPL CFO R.K. Agarwal said the company has authorized INM to sell upto 22 million shares, amounting to 7% stake in the publisher of Dainik Jagran, India’s most read daily.
As per the shareholders’ agreement, JPL has the first right of refusal should INM decide to sell. While the companies did not do a private deal, Agarwal said the company was buying as much stock from the open market as possible without triggering an open offer. “I have authorized my people to buy upto 5%–that is the most we can buy under the restrictions of the takeover code,” Agarwal said. “Exactly how much we ended up buying, I’ll know only tomorrow,” Agarwal said.
The promoter group–Jagran’s Gupta family–held 59.25% prior to the current transaction. (In the picture L-R: JPL CMD Mahendra Mohan Gupta and CEO Sanjay Gupta)
INM, which publishes The Independent, among others, acquired a 26% stake in JPL in 2005 at Rs467 per share. It got diluted to 20.8% after JPL’s initial public offering in 2006. Today, INM sold at Rs67.39. However, INM subsequently received bonus shares in JPL, adjusting for which, the effective price of acquisition becomes Rs143.7. In addition to this, JPL also undertook a stock split, which means while the face value of the shares was Rs10 at the time of acquisition, the face value of the same shares now is Rs2. INM also received dividends all these years from the profit-making JPL. The Jagran scrip closed at Rs71.15, down 3.46% on the Bombay stock Exchange. The benchmark Sensex closed marginally up.
“This sale represents approximately 7.3% of the issued share capital of JPL and reduces INM

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