Jaiprakash Associates shares plunged as much as 5 per cent on Friday after reports that ICICI Bank has decided to invoke strategic debt restructuring (SDR) in the company.
Later, Jaiprakash Associates in a BSE filing clarified that the news item was based on market speculations as the share price of the company closed 3.16 per cent down at Rs 8.59.
The share price of the company opened at Rs 8.99 and has touched a high and low of Rs 9.42 and Rs 8.43, respectively, in trade.
Religare in a research report said, “We maintain our negative stance on SDR evoked companies. The banks after becoming majority owners can drive sale process of subsidiaries and other assets without promoters’ intervention.”
According to reports, there is uncertainty over sale of Jaiprakash Associates’ cement assets to UltraTech Cement. UltraTech wants to reduce the ticket size of the Rs 15,900 crore transaction by cherry-picking only some assets, now possible under the recently amended Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act.
Jaiprakash Associates had a consolidated debt of Rs 58,250 crore as of March 31.