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Govt invites bids for Maruti valuation

Mamata Singh

After a long hiatus, work on the Maruti divestment has picked up pace once again. The divestment ministry has written to six firms, three Indian and three foreign, inviting their bids for the valuation exercise. Of these, one Indian firm and two foreign firms will be assigned the task.

In addition, the divestment ministry, which now has the 'sole' charge of overseeing the Maruti sale has written to 11 merchant bankers and consultants to ask them whether they would be interested in acting as advisers for the divestment.

"The valuers have been asked to submit bids and we will pick the three lowest bids for valuation of Maruti Udyog Limited," said senior officials in the divestment ministry.

The valuers will be asked to determine the control premium and renunciation premium for the rights issue and the share price at which the public offer should be made, they added.

In order to avoid delays and controversies over the different values which the three valuers may come up with, they will be asked to agree on a single figure and report that to the government, officials said.

This is in line with international practice where valuers are expected to negotiate and asked to come up with a single figure for the share price or premia to be charged.

As per the roadmap approved by the government and Suzuki, three valuers have to be appointed to determine the share price and the premia to be charged.

One valuer has to be selected by the government, one by Suzuki and the third should be acceptable to both.

"The divestment ministry and Suzuki have already gone over the list of six valuers and these are acceptable to both sides. We will pick the lowest Indian bid and the two lower bids from the global companies," said officials.

The two stage process for the Maruti divestment approved by the Cabinet Committee on Divestment in February this year included a rights issue by September followed by a public offer of Maruti shares.

As per the new timetable drawn up by the divestment ministry, the rights issue will be completed by December and the subsequent step of offloading government equity (approximately 6.6 million shares) will be finalised before the end of this fiscal.

The government will get a negotiated control premium and a renunciation premium for its portion of the Rs 4 billion rights issue.

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