MUMBAI, July 21: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has granted partial exemptions to Abbott Laboratories of the USA and Lupharma GmbH from making open offers under the new takeover code while hiking their stake from 40 per cent to 51 per cent in Abbot Laboratories India and Knoll Pharmaceuticals respectively.It has also completely exempted Chowgule & Co from making an open offer while acquiring a 17 per cent stake in Narmada Cement Company (NCCL). Similarly, the promoters of Malwa Cotton Spinning Mills have also been granted an exemption from making an open offer as they hike their stake in the company from 48 per cent to 54.8 per cent.Howoever, Sebi has asked Hoechst AG to make an open offer while hiking the stake in Hoechst Marrion Russell from 50.1 per cent to 56.1 per cent. The SEBI directive is expected to push up the acquisition cost of Hoechst AG. It has asked JK Tyres to make an open offer for the acquisition of Vikrant Tyres.Similarly, the SEBI has deferred a decision on making a public offer in the case of Nestle SA which is planning to hikes its stake in Indian subsidiary Nestle India Ltd - from 51 per cent to 54.62 per cent.These recommendations were made by the takeover panel instituted as per the new takeover regulations. In the case of Abbott, the parent had intended to hike its stake by purchasing 11 per cent of the total issued capital through negotiations with Indian financial institutions.The panel has allowed partial exemption because the government has allowed Abbot USA to increase its stake only upto 51 per cent and a public offer for 20 per cent will be in violation of the government's decision. In the case of Lupharma GmbH, the partial exemption has been granted for the same reason. Chowgule was granted an exemption as it intended to purchase the 17 per cent stake from ICICI, SCICI & I-Sec as part of a buy-back arrangement. These shares were initially transferred to these institutions for the purpose of raising funds to fulfill committments to NCCL under a rehabilitation scheme sanctioned by the BIFR.
