10 Takeover Bids that Failed

Reliance Industries v/s Larsen & Toubro

Reliance Industries was considered as a white knight at the outset in the late 80s. The company struggled hard to take control of L&T, but had to withdraw after financial institutions pulled out their support. The progress overlapped with Congress losing power at the Centre. In 1990, the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the General Insurance Corporation of India blocked efforts by the Reliance group to get hold of managerial control over Larsen & Toubro. Sensing defeat, the Ambanis resigned from the board of the company. Dhirubhai, who had become L&T’s Chairman in April 1989, had to quit his post to make way for D. N. Ghosh, former Chairman of the State Bank of India.

BAT v/s ITC

In the mid-90s, the tobacco major, British American Tobacco Industries (BAT) tried to take control of ITC. BAT was the only largest shareholder in the company. But BAT’s attempts to get hold of ITC didn’t turn into reality as KL Chugh who led ITC was able to convince the Indian government  that  the battle was between a well-built, well-managed and board-run Indian company and a greedy multinational. Government-owned institutions with a stake in ITC helped to ward off the threat.