Hyderabad, Oct 27 :     After holding out for more than a year, B.V. Raju caved in today, offering his entire stake in Sri Vishnu Cements Ltd (SVCL) to his rival, Chennai-based India Cements Ltd (ICL), which had taken over Raju?s other concern, Raasi Cement Ltd, in a hostile bid in June last year. In a statement here, B.V. Raju said the entire holding of his associates in Sri Vishnu Cement Ltd, which has a capacity of one million tonnes per annum, has been sold to ICL Securities Ltd and Raasi Cement Ltd. The ICL group will pay Rs 115 crore to acquire the 88.50 per cent of the paid-up capital of SVCL amounting to Rs 23.7 crore, including the disputed 39.56 per cent holding originally held by Raasi Cement. On the eve of Raasi Cement?s takeover by India Cements, Raju had transferred Raasi Cement?s stake in Sri Vishnu to his associates, thus putting paid to India Cement?s hopes of acquiring Sri Vishnu with its takeover of Raasi Cement. But ICL had taken Raju to court over this transfer, kicking off a long legal battle which was settled out of court today. As part of the deal, Raju and his associates sold 50 per cent of SVCL equity to ICL Securities and 38.5 per cent to Raasi Cement, ICL vice-chairman and managing director N. Srinivasan said. Srinivasan said ICL will act in concert with its subsidiary, ICL Securities, to come out with an open offer to acquire the remaining holding in the company before eventually merging SVCL with ICL. ICL said the acquisition will ultimately be funded without increasing the debt through an issue of preference shares and a fresh issue of equity shares and in the interim period finance it through bridge finance. On the SVCL takeover, Srinivasan said, ?It was a strategic acquisition for the group... I have always held Raju in the greatest of respect and I am happy that he chose our group to hand over the mantle.? Raju said the younger generation of his family was more interested in high-technology areas like software. ?In view of my age and keeping in mind the interests of the stakeholders in SVCL, we decided to divest in favour of ICL,? he said in a press note. With the takeover, the ICL group has acquired a total capacity of nine million tonnes per annum of cement. It will now control four popular brands?Shankar, Coromandel, Raasi and Vishnu. ?The turn of events vindicated ICL?s principled stand on the dispute of transfer of SVCL shares held by Raasi Cement,? Srinivasan added. The Sri Vishnu Cement shot up to Rs 92.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange today from Rs 85.55 yesterday. However, the news of the takeover came only after the close of trading hours. The decision of Rajus?s was not a surprise in Hyderabad. Market watchers had anticipated that Raju would pull out sooner or later. Some of his grandchildren have already diverted to software (Raasi Soft) and sanitaryware. Although one of his grandsons bought a mini cement company?Chez?in Nalgonda and has converted it into Ajanani Cements, he, too, is not very serious about the industry.