Essar Steel buzz

Essar Steel surged 44 per cent last week after the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) kept the company’s delisting proposal in abeyance. The weekly trading volumes were brisk at 66.88 million shares, compared with 6.53 million shares in the week ended November 30.

The SAT issued an interim order on Wednesday after an investor moved the authority alleging that the discovered price of the share for delisting was below the intrinsic value of the company. SAT has directed Essar Steel to file its response in this regard. The matter will come up for hearing on December 12.

Trading in the company’s equity shares was supposed to be suspended from December 6 on account of voluntary delisting as per Guidelines, 2003. The company had fixed the exit price at Rs 48 a share.

The promoters’ shareholding had gone up from 87.08 per cent to 90.7 per cent at the closure of the reverse book building (RBB) process recently.

Essar Steel has plants in India, Indonesia and Canada. The company is planning to set up another 4 million tonne plant at Hazira in Gujarat.