Shares of India Cements on Wednesday rallied around 5 per cent on reports that Radhakishan Damani, the founder of Avenue Supermarts, is planning to take control of the cement maker.

Shares of the Chennai-based firm zoomed 10.55 per cent on the BSE to hit an intra-day high of Rs 139.30.

The counter pared its gains to close at Rs 132.10, a rise of 4.84 per cent, or Rs 6.10, over its last close.

This came after a Bloomberg report said that Damani, who heads retail chain D-Mart, has informally reached out to the cement manufacturer’s controlling shareholder, N. Srinivasan, to explore a takeover.

The report added that Srinivasan is also talking to other investors to ward off any hostile bids, even as Damani is looking for a friendly change in management and is not seeking a hostile takeover.

However, in a clarification to the stock exchanges, India Cements said it is “in total compliance of all the disclosure requirements to the stock exchanges under regulation 30 of the Sebi (LODR) Regulations, 2015 and that other than the disclosures already available, we have no other information/ announcement (including impending announcement) to be made, which in our opinion may have a bearing on the price behaviour in the shares of our company’’.

The shareholding pattern of India Cements for the period ended March 31, 2020 shows that the promoters hold a 28.26 per cent stake.

However, the Damani family holds close to 20 per cent and their holding has risen almost four times during the year. So far this calendar year, the share price of India Cements has risen more than 80 per cent.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2019, India Cements had posted a standalone loss of Rs 5.37 crore against a profit of Rs 3.13 crore in the same period of the previous year. Total income during the same period rose to Rs 1,194.42 crore from Rs 1,320.57 crore in the year-ago period.

. Its board will meet on June 24 to consider results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2020.

The domestic cement sector which has been affected by Covid-19, the subsequent nationwide lockdown and construction activities taking a hit, saw a major deal earlier this year when Emami sold its cement business to Nirma at an enterprise value of Rs 5500 crore to cut debt.