Bilcare alleges cartel behind price crash, seeks BSE probe
Pharmaceutical packaging material maker Bilcare has asked BSE to probe a 48% crash in its share price last week, in the four trading sessions between Tuesday and Friday.
Bilcare shares crashed to Rs 73 from Rs 143 and volumes at the counter rose exceptionally high to Rs 5 lakh from a previous average of 30,000.
"Strangely, this sharp fall and high volume coincides with mobile message campaign which makes us belief that this steep fall in stock price happens to be a malafide act and managed by parties who are inimical to our business interest," says the letter written by company secretary Anil Tikekar to BSE.
Last week, one of India's largest mutual funds ICICI Prudential exited the company by selling its 11.73 lakh shares, or 4.98% stake, in the packaging material maker. ICICI Prudential spokesperson refused to comment on the share sale.
A fund manager, who did not wish to be named, said a few of the institutional investors raised questions over the financials published by the company over the past few months. These investors pressed the panic button after they failed to get satisfactory answers from the company.
A company spokesperson, while denying all allegations, blamed the bear cartel for the sharp fall in share price.
"This seems to be a vested-interest activity to malign the company and hence we have written to and requested the BSE to investigate the precipitate fall in our stock price," said a company spokesperson in a reply to ET queries. "As the leader in pharma packaging and with a global presence, Bilcare follows the highestcorporate governance norms."
The stock, which hit a record of Rs 1,830 in January 2008, rose 10% to close at Rs 84 on Thursday.
India's billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala owns 8.51% in the company as on December 31, 2012, according to filings to the exchange. The other major investors include Deutsche Bank (8.96%), Merrill Lynch Capital (1.67%), Monument Pte (7.48%) and UTI MFFund (1.35%).
Its promoters have reduced pledged shares from 95.3% to 9.3% in Q2 of FY13. It reported a 4.2% rise in net sales to Rs 2,784 crore for the nine months ended December 2012 over the same period year ago and its Net profit declined 27% to Rs 25.22 crore.
Source : RAJESH MASCARENHAS,ET BUREAU
Bilcare has asked BSE to probe a 48% crash in its share price last week, in the four trading sessions between Tuesday and Friday.
Pharmaceutical packaging material maker Bilcare has asked BSE to probe a 48% crash in its share price last week, in the four trading sessions between Tuesday and Friday.
Bilcare shares crashed to Rs 73 from Rs 143 and volumes at the counter rose exceptionally high to Rs 5 lakh from a previous average of 30,000.
"Strangely, this sharp fall and high volume coincides with mobile message campaign which makes us belief that this steep fall in stock price happens to be a malafide act and managed by parties who are inimical to our business interest," says the letter written by company secretary Anil Tikekar to BSE.
Last week, one of India's largest mutual funds ICICI Prudential exited the company by selling its 11.73 lakh shares, or 4.98% stake, in the packaging material maker. ICICI Prudential spokesperson refused to comment on the share sale.
A fund manager, who did not wish to be named, said a few of the institutional investors raised questions over the financials published by the company over the past few months. These investors pressed the panic button after they failed to get satisfactory answers from the company.
A company spokesperson, while denying all allegations, blamed the bear cartel for the sharp fall in share price.
"This seems to be a vested-interest activity to malign the company and hence we have written to and requested the BSE to investigate the precipitate fall in our stock price," said a company spokesperson in a reply to ET queries. "As the leader in pharma packaging and with a global presence, Bilcare follows the highestcorporate governance norms."
The stock, which hit a record of Rs 1,830 in January 2008, rose 10% to close at Rs 84 on Thursday.
India's billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala owns 8.51% in the company as on December 31, 2012, according to filings to the exchange. The other major investors include Deutsche Bank (8.96%), Merrill Lynch Capital (1.67%), Monument Pte (7.48%) and UTI MFFund (1.35%).
Its promoters have reduced pledged shares from 95.3% to 9.3% in Q2 of FY13. It reported a 4.2% rise in net sales to Rs 2,784 crore for the nine months ended December 2012 over the same period year ago and its Net profit declined 27% to Rs 25.22 crore.
Source : RAJESH MASCARENHAS,ET BUREAU
