Chennai:

Coromandel International, the flagship company of the Chennai-based Murugappa Group, has upped its stake in agrochemical manufacturer Sabero Organics by over 5 percentage points to just below 75% in the March quarter.

Coromandel bought about 18.53 lakh shares or 5.47% stake from the existing promoters, said a Sabero footnote to its Q4 earnings.

The Murugappa Group company acquired Sabero last year and after an open offer it held a 69.1% stake. The company spent over Rs 400 crore on the acquisition.

Sabero posted a Q4 standalone net loss of just over Rs 11 crore, compared to a loss of Rs 7.52 crore in the same quarter the year before. This is its sixth straight quarterly loss. Sales, however, rose to Rs 94 crore from Rs 88 crore.

In the company’s third quarter conference call, Kapil Mehan, managing director of Coromandel, had said he expects Sabero to return to normalcy and healthy growth in the next two to three quarters.

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / ET Home> Markets> Stocks> Stocks in News / ET Bureau / April 19th, 2012