OCH/COMM/2007/99153
July 20, 2007
The Editor
MINT
(The Wall Street Journal)
HT Media Ltd.
401, 4th Floor, Plai Plaza
Opp. Hotel Midtown Pritam
9, Kohinoor Road
Dadar (East)
Mumbai – 400 014
Sub: Clarification
This has reference to the news item titled “Tatas await SEBI nod; propose to rebrand Himalayan mineral water” published in MINT, Mumbai edition dated July 18, 2007. The article inter alia mentions that “Tata Tea has applied to stock market regulator SEBI for permission to make an open offer to acquire 20% more in Mount Everest from public shareholders in keeping with Indian Laws.”
In this connection, we would like to clarify as follows:
“The heading of the article read with contents suggest that the matter is pending with SEBI for clearance and that the acquirer requires SEBI permission.
SEBI received the draft letter of offer in respect of the captioned open offer on June 18, 2007. As per the provisions of the relevant Regulations if, within 21 days from the date of submission of the draft letter of offer, the Board specifies changes, if any, in the letter of offer, (without being under any obligation to do so) the Merchant Banker and the acquirer shall carry out such changes before the letter of offer is dispatched to the shareholders. If the disclosures in the draft letter of offer are inadequate, the Board may call for revised letter of offer and may offer its comments on the revised letter of offer within seven working days of filing of such letter of offer. The disclosures given by the Merchant Banker in the draft letter of offer submitted on June 18, 2007 were not only found inadequate but also not in standard format, which was informed to the Merchant Banker who submitted the revised draft letter of offer on July 03, 2007. After examining the submissions of the Merchant Banker as per the provisions of the relevant Regulations, SEBI issued its observations to the Merchant Banker on July 11, 2007.
As such the information contained in the news item, which appeared a week after SEBI had issued the observations, is factually incorrect and misleading.”
It is requested that the above clarification may be published in your newspaper to put the record straight.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
For Securities and Exchange Board of India
(N. Hariharan)
Deputy General Manager (Communications)