Calcutta, Nov. 18 :    Calcutta, Nov. 18:  The Aditya Vikram Birla group plans to raise its stake in flagship Indo Gulf Cor poration by 58 per cent in the next couple of years. The promoters currently hold 37.7 per cent in the company through other group companies . Grasim (12.2 per cent), Indian Rayon (8.6 per cent), Hindalco (8.6 per cent) and Pradeshiya Industri al & Investment Corp (8.3 per cent). Sources close to the group top brass said the promoters will hike their stake to around 45 per cent in the company, which is doing ex ceedingly well even in the face of a severe economic recession. .The move to increase the stake has not been prompted by any kind of takeover threat. It is purely a manifestation of the pro moters. commitment to the com pany,. they added. However, they did not reveal the tentative investment involved, only saying that the acquisition will be made through market op erations. .The promoters will go for purchase whenever the best price is available in the market,. they said. Official confirmation on the issue, however, could not be ob tained despite several attempts made by The Telegraph. Besides the promoters. stake, banks and financial institutions hold 26.5 per cent while public and foreign holding stands at 35.7 per cent. The scrip is presently hovering at around Rs 39. Sources added that the company did not have any buyback plans for now, despite the very low share price. Indo Gulf, which has a capital base of Rs 225 crore, has reserves of Rs 1,496 crore. The company, which registered a net profit of Rs 251.7 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2001, produces copper and fertilisers. Copper con tributes over 77 per cent to the total turnover of the company, with the remaining coming from fertilisers. Sources said the company plans to increase the production capacity of its copper plant at Dahej in Gujarat. The copper smelter has a capacity of one lakh tonnes per annum although there is a provision for builtin expan sion of up to 1.5 lakh tonnes. .Copper has a very good mar ket potential in India, particularly in the power and telecom sector. Since the government is serious on both sectors, their potential is likely to grow further,. sources said. Indo Gulf now has an over 40 per cent market share in the coun try. The company has obtained technology for the smelter from Finland while the refining tech nology has been sourced from Australia.