The Andhra Pradesh government sold its entire 25.36 per cent stake in AP Paper Mills Ltd to the L N Bangur group, the private promoters of the company with a holding of 46.73 per cent. It divested the stake at a price of Rs 130.95 per share aggregating Rs 39.29 crore (Rs 392.9 million).
 
Though the price paid by the Bangurs is more than Friday's closing price of Rs 113.10 on the BSE and equivalent to the valuation made by the financial consultants, it is considerably lower than the Rs 170 book value of AP Papers' share as on September 30, 2003.

The purchase of shares by Bangurs will not trigger any open offer to the public shareholders since it is considered as inter-se transfer between the promoters, and the price paid is not more than 25 per cent of the rate that works out as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India formula for such transactions.

As per the Sebi formula, the minimum price based on the relevant date concept works out to be Rs 108.