GTB denies price rigging

HYDERABAD, APRIL 6. Denying allegations of scrip price rigging, Global Trust Bank (GTB) said that its share had been in rolling settlement `which does not enable the possibility of taking speculative positions to trade'.

In a statement here today GTB said ``Though we are not aware of the contents of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Member of Parliament on alleged rigging of GTB share price, it is a fact that no discussions were held with UTI Bank on the merger proposal during October-November 2000 the period when the alleged rigging took place".

``The entire promoter group, for the period of April 2000 to March 2001, had acquired only 3.50 lakh shares of the bank and sold 90,000 shares, insignificant, compared to the total issued capital of 12.10 crore shares and with daily average turnover 2-4 lakh shares", the release said.

Asserting that there was no price increase during the entire period of merger discussions, GTB claims that the prices had on the contrary fallen during the period. Discussions on merger were initiated at the middle of December 2000 and merger was announced on January 24, 2001.

The share price of GTB, which was Rs. 91 on December 18 (starting of discussions), remained below this level throughout pre-merger talks and in fact came down to a level of Rs. 80.25 on January 23 (one day before the merger announcement), the release said.

``Obviously GTB has been negotiating throughout in a falling price scenario and this should itself set at rest any speculation that GTB has not resorted to any external support to improve its position", the statement added.

- PTI

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