Mumbai :

Leading bourse National Stock Exchange (NSE) today gave its approval to merger of Alliance Coffee with its listed parent firm Tata Coffee saying the amalgamation does not violate provisions of securities law.

Tata Coffee in September had announced that its board has approved the merger of Alliance Coffee with itself, consequent to which the draft scheme of amalgamation was filed with stock exchanges for necessary approval.

In a communication to Tata Coffee, NSE said it is granting its ‘no-objection approval’ to the proposed scheme and this observation letter will be valid for six months starting today, within which period the company would have to file the scheme with the High Court for further clearance.

Another bourse, BSE granted its no-objection to the scheme on November 21.

NSE also said that Sebi’s observations on the scheme requires Tata Coffee to display ‘fairness opinion’ submitted by it on the website of listed firm.

“We have perused ‘draft scheme of arrangement’ and related documents submitted by Tata Coffee including the confirmation of the company secretary that the scheme so submitted does not in any way violate, over-ride or circumscribe the provisions of securities laws or stock exchange requirements,” NSE said.

“Accordingly, we do hereby convey our ‘no-objection’ with limited reference to those matters having a bearing on listing /delisting/ continuous listing requirements within the provisions of the Listing Agreement, so as to enable the company to file the scheme with the High Court,” it added.

According to norms, companies seeking to execute merger or de-merger strategies need to obtain ‘no-objection certificate’ from stock exchanges.

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> Markets> Commodities> Exchanges / by PTI / November 25th, 2013