BM Khaitan family, have been controlling the Eveready Industries India Ltd for 25 years. It currently holds a little over 22% stake in the Kolkata-based company, down from 44% a year ago.
FMCG
major Dabur’s
promoters, the Burman family, may soon become a strategic partner of the BM Khaitan group controlled Eveready Industries India Ltd (EIIL), as part of current
restructuring, sources said on Tuesday.
The
Burmans had previously picked up 19.8% stake in the dry cell battery major
through market operations in the last 12-15 months. The last tranche of share
purchase of 8.8% took place recently through a block deal, they said.
Burmans have rehabilitated their attention in
Eveready and a strategic tie-up with the Khaitan family is inevitable. The deal
is in the making and higher contours will be worked out. There had been powerful speculations that MNC battery
makers were in talks with the home-grown battery major for takeover of the business.
The new partnership will assist to keep Eveready Industries as an Indian
company.
The
Burman family had freshly said, “We discover worth in the stock and
hence, we have bought it and the purchases were investments in nature.”
No comments were presented from the Burman
family on the proposed strategic tie-up till the filing of this report.
The battery business has been experiencing superior
demand with a fall in dumping from China, which helped the company improve its
cash flow.
It had condensed debt by Rs 200 crore from Rs
550 crore by selling its land property in Hyderabad and Chennai.
Despite group-level debt issues, Eveready
Industries had also effectively diversified into the appliances business.
The company posted a net profit of Rs 16.74
crore in the 4th quarter of the 2019-20 fiscal compared with Rs 5.48 crore in
the previous year.
The Burman family becoming the main investor and
entering Eveready Industries India Ltd board room is not ruled out. The firm might be jointly
managed by both the familes mutually.
