The Securities Appellate Tribunal admitted on Wednesday an appeal filed by the AV Birla Group against the Securities and Exchange Board of India diktat, debarring Grasim Industries, a Birla flagship company, from proceeding with the open offer for Larsen & Toubro until further order.
Acccording to SAT sources, the hearing of the case would be held on Thursday at 1430 hrs and an interim order would be passed thereafter.
The Birla Group had expressed its strong reservations over the Sebi order and moved the SAT claiming that it had very strong legal grounds in respect of the open offer for buying out the L&T shares at Rs 109 per share from public as against its acquisition of 10.05 per cent shares from the Reliance Group at much higher price of Rs 306.60 per share.
The Sebi move was prompted by a recent SAT directive, which asked the market regulator to review its decision on a similar case involving the Gujarat Ambuja's acquisition of ACC's stake in tranches.
Sebi, in its order, had asked Grasim Industries not to proceed with the open offer as it was currently investigating the ACC-Gujarat Ambuja case.
Birla Group, in its appeal, said that Sebi should treat each case on its own merit and suggested that the market regulator could insert certain additional clauses in the offer document without curtailing the proceedings.
