Calcutta, Oct. 30: Bright Star Investments, the firm that made an open offer for a 30 per cent stake in VST Industries a couple of years ago, has increased its holding in the company by 2.01 per cent recently.

The investment firm owned by stockbrokers R. S. and G. S. Damani now owns 21.57 per cent of VST’s shares. Bright Star owns 33.32 lakh shares of the company, having recently acquired 3,10,442 shares from the market, VST told stock exchanges today.

The UK-based tobacco major British American Tobacco (BAT) owns 32.16 per cent in VST. ITC’s investment arm Russell Credit has also been acquiring VST’s shares — it now holds 14 per cent.

ITC had responded to the Damanis’ offer to the shareholders of VST with a competing bid. Though the Damanis offered a better price — Rs 151 per share as against Russell Credit’s Rs 125 — they did not manage to corner too many shares, while Russell Credit acquired around 9 per cent through its offer.

Since then both Russell Credit and Bright Star have consolidated their holding in VST. The ITC investment subsidiary recently picked up the Andhra Pradesh government’s 4.69 per cent stake in the company for Rs 15.55 crore. It paid Rs 215 per share, beating Bright Star’s offer of Rs 172. The VST stock is currently trading at Rs 185.