The scrip, which touched its 52-week high of Rs 65 in the last six weeks, was at Rs 36 on Friday at the Calcutta Stock Exchange. The market is now questioning the basis of the reports about the bid by Mr Kumar. The non-resident Indian businessman, who had projected a bid via a boutique investment company called Genesis International, had reportedly said that Kesoram's assets were attractive. Apart from this, he had not cited any plausible reason for this sudden interest.

According to a CSE broker, the share hit Rs 61.45 on the CSE on February 14, the day a financial daily reported the takeover bid by Mr Kumar. The broker pointed out that the Kesoram incident is similar to that relating to the Bank of Rajasthan, a couple of years ago, when it was under the management of the Bangurs.

When a financial daily reported that GE Capital is interested in the Bank of Rajasthan, the share price shot up to Rs 120 from Rs 81. Within three weeks, it was back at its previous level of Rs 81. Kesoram has gross block assets worth Rs 925.14 crore and net asset block of Rs 516.70 crore. It had reported a net profit of Rs 1.57 crore, and cash profit of Rs 4.57 crore, on net sales of Rs 561.10 crore for the year ended March 31, 2000.

The Kesoram's scrip started dipping within a couple of days of the reported takeover bid, when there was no followup action from Dubai. The only reaction came from the Kesoram management, which said it will buy out the stake held by the financial institutions in the company, in a bid to thwart the raider.

The broker pointed out that either the management has reached a tacit understanding with Mr Kumar, or some brokers made a killing and had exited.

Kesoram's company secretary, SK Parikh, could not be contacted. It is understood that the BK Birla management, which had adopted a wait-and-watch policy, is yet to receive any official information on who has bought the shares.