New owner

Calcutta, May 20: Tokyo-based Stanley Electric Co, the joint venture promoter of Lumax Industries Ltd, will gain management control of the latter. Lumax Industries is a market leader in automotive lighting industry in India with over 60 per cent market share.

Stanley Electric filed a letter of takeover with the Securities and Exchange Board of India on May 15 to make a public offer for acquiring 18,69,547 shares, representing 20 per cent of the outstanding share capital of Lumax Industries, from the public at a price of Rs 540 a share. The company has appointed Enam Financial Consultants as the lead manager of the equity buy-back offer, which will open on July 4 and close on July 23.

The Lumax Industries share price closed at Rs 453 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, about 1.5 per cent down from its previous close. The offer price, therefore, comes at a 19.2 per cent premium over the last closing price. The stock touched a 52-week-high price of Rs 580 a share on January 12 this year.

The Lumax board had allotted one lakh shares to Stanley Electric on a preferential basis earlier this month. Before the preferential allotment, Stanley Electric had a stakeholding of 17.47 per cent in Lumax Industries, while Thai Stanley Electric (its subsidiary in Thailand) had 1.94 per cent. After the preferential allotment on May 8, Stanley Electric’s share in the Indian joint venture has gone up to 26.30 per cent. It holds 28.24 per cent jointly with Thai Stanley Electric. The holding of the Delhi-based Sagar Chand Jain family, the promoters of Lumax, has come down to 36 per cent from nearly 40 per cent.

After the preferential allotment, it became mandatory for Stanley Electric to make this public offer to buy up to 20 per cent of the outstanding share capital in the company under the Sebi (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeover) Regulations, 1997.

If Stanley Electric manages to acquire the 18.69 lakh shares through the open public offer, it will have a controlling stake of 48 per cent in Lumax against 36 per cent of the Jains.

However, the officials of Lumax were not forthcoming on the issue of change in the management. But the management confirmed that it does not intend to delist the company from either the BSE or NSE.

Lumax Industries was set up in Delhi by S.C. Jain as a trading company under the name Globe Auto Industries. The company changed its name to Lumax Industries in 1981 and went public in 1984. It provides automotive lighting solutions for four wheelers and two wheelers.