Eveready Industries news: Eveready Industries Chairman, MD resign amid Burman Group’s takeover bid

The resignations of Aditya Khaitan and Amritanshu Khaitan came two days after the Burmans made an open offer for the Kolkata-based dry cell battery major.

Suvamoy Saha will assume charge as the new MD of the company, a filing said.

The Burmans made the open offer, mandatory under SEBI’s takeover rules, once they acquired an additional 5.26 per cent Eveready stake from the open market, which put its total shareholding at 25.11%.

Before the takeover bid, Burmans were already the largest shareholder in the company with a 19.85% stake.

Eveready has great potential and only needs direction, Mohit Burman of Dabur Group said. This is the appropriate time for the Burmans to step in, he said, adding that they had been monitoring the situation in the company for some time.

“We feel we will be able to add value and take this business to the next level,” said Burman, who is a director at Dabur.

Dabur India Ltd is not directly involved in the acquisition process of Eveready, a statement said.

Eveready belonged to the BM Khaitan group for two decades. It had come under the group in 1993 when it acquired Union Carbide India and renamed it ‘Eveready Industries India’.

The promoters’ shareholding in Eveready fell to just 4.8% — a steep dive from 44.1% over the past two years — following defaults on repayments, prompting lenders to offload their pledged shares.

The Khaitans had pledged their holdings in Eveready and McLeod Russel, a tea producer, to get loans to repay McNally Bharat Engineering’s debts.