Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), the new promoter of Maytas Infra Limited (MIL), will come out with an open offer to acquire 20 per cent additional stake in MIL in a couple of days.
IL&FS which holds 14.5 per cent stake in MIL had been permitted to acquire another 22.5 per cent stake pledged by the Raju family and the open offer would take the total stake of the company to 57 per cent. The company had already invested a couple of hundred crore rupees and would need about Rs. 130-150 crore for the open offer.
"This is a big jump. Once we finish the open offer, we will work on stabilising the operations of the company and infusing additional capital," IL&FS Chairman Ravi Parthasarathy said. The company had already announced its intention to pump in Rs. 55 crore for infusing liquidity into MIL and decided to chalk out measures for re-capitalisation of the beleaguered company that posted Rs. 489 crore loss during the previous fiscal.
IL&FS has nominated four of its directors on the board of Maytas Infra, including Mr. Parthasarathy while two Government nominated directors would be retained. Mr. Parthasarathy told reporters here on Tuesday that the decision to take a controlling stake in the company was made with a ‘slightly different perspective’ and he was convinced that MIL had not done anything wrong.
MIL was made to suffer because of it being in the vicinity of the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services. IL&FS accepted the offer to take a controlling stake after a complete consensus was reached. The company would work to restore confidence among stakeholders and take up bidding for new projects jointly with the MIL.
Replying to queries, he said there was no motivation for IL&FS to exit MIL. "We are just entering, where is the question of contemplating an exit now," he asked. Maytas Infra former chairman K. Ramalingam said the company had evidence that Rs. 390 crore from its reserves went into Satyam and action had been initiated to recover the amount.
