MCX invites bid for sale of its warrants in MSXI

NEW DELHI: Racing against time, commodity exchange MCX today made a fresh attempt to sell warrants held by it in Metropolitan Stock Exchange.

MCX is facing difficulty in selling these convertible warrants that are to lapse on June 19.

"The stake is in the form of 40 crore equity share warrants, with a face value of Re 1 per warrant, which are convertible into equity share of Re 1 per share on or before June 19, 2015," MCX said in a public notice.

The country's largest commodity exchange added that entities interested in acquiring MCX's stake in Metropolitan Stock Exchange are invited to forward their bids, along with remittance of the total amount of bid, with a minimum quote of Rs 1.10 and above per warrant.

Metropolitan Stock Exchange was earlier known as MCX-SX. The bids are to be made on or before June 16. Meanwhile, Sebi has already rejected the commodity bourse's proposal to hike stake by conversion of existing warrants.

At the end of March this year, MCX held nearly five per cent equity stake as well as 58.26 crore warrants valued at around Rs 117 crore in the stock exchange. Sources said the present value of warrants is about Rs 100 crore.

Under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) (Stock Exchanges And Clearing Corporations) Regulations, 2012, rights over equity held beyond a given threshold would be applicable only for a certain period of time.

In the present case, the period of three years provided to MCX for reducing its stake in the stock exchange ends on June 19.

Shares of MCX rose marginally to close at Rs 986.70 on the BSE.