It is beneficial to stay with IFCI stock in the short run.

Stock analyst, Ashwani Gujral has given this ‘short term’ call for IFCI stock. Presently the stock is 1.6% down, and it is the best time for investors to purchase this stock.

Today, the stock opened at Rs 108 as compared to its last closure at Rs 106.8 (Monday) on BSE.

According to Mr. Gujral, the stock can surely touch Rs 140 within 3-4 weeks. He also suggested investors not to sell IFCI stock before achieving this target. The stop loss is at Rs 93.

The IFCI board (On Dec 3) has decided to bring in multilateral institution International Finance Corporation (IFC) as an investor.

IFC, the investment arm of World Bank, is likely to hold less than 20% stake. IFCI needs funds to meet its capital adequacy requirements.

The IFCI management earlier resolved issues of debt conversion for its creditor banks by letting them convert all their debt into equity.

Only four of the eight shortlisted bidders have actually conducted due diligence till date. These include the Sterlite Industries and Morgan Stanley & Co consortium, the WL Ross, GS Capital Partners (VI) Fund, Standard Chartered Bank and HDFC combine, the Shinsei Bank, PNB and JC Flowers group and the Cargill Financial Services Corporation and Texas Pacific consortium Cargill Financial Services has teamed up with Texas Pacific Group, which is a new entrant.

The remaining bidders, GE Corporation, IDFC, Natixis and Blackstone Group, are yet to conduct due diligence, raising doubts over their interest in the sale.

If a number of bidders drop out it might impact the competitive pricing of the 26% stake. The last date of submission for financial bids has been fixed as December 14. The IFCI board is expected to announce the strategic investor by December 20.