Essar Oil's delisting to be biggest in India
Economic Times reported that Essar Oil's move to delist its shares from stock exchanges, for which the company recently got a nod from market regulator Sebi, is set to be the largest such offering in India in terms of payouts to investors.
The company is expected to announce a delisting price of INR 262.8 per share, thanks to LIC's last-moment decision to hike the price by nearly 10%, which takes the total payout by the Ruias -Essar Oil promoters -to around Rs 3,745 crore.
In terms of payments to general shareholders, the Ruias would end up paying more than twice they paid to take Essar Ports public, which at Rs 1,430 crore is until now the largest delisting offer in the country .
The last day for announcing its acceptance of shares by Essar Oil is Wednesday .When contacted, a company spokesman declined to comment.
Essar Oil is a fully integrated oil company with exploration blocks, large sized refineries and over 1,400 retail fuel pumps.
During fiscal 2015, it had clocked a revenue of INR 83,206 crore. Post this delisting, the group will have two group firms -Essar Shipping and AGC Networks.
Past data show that of the previous top delisting offers, three of them -Essar Port, India Securities (INR 1,359 crore) and Essar Ports (INR 707 crore) -were by the the Ruias.
According to market sources tracking the development, on December 21, the last day of the delisting offer through the reverse book bu ilding route, LIC tendered a block of nearly 2 crore shares at a price of INR 262.8 per share, compared to the then prevailing price of INR 240.
As the merchant bankers and the company needed LIC's block to reach the 9.25 crore share mark for the offer to succeed, the whole issue was accepted at LIC's offer price. Non-promoters held about 14.25 crore shares of the company when the delisting offer opened, and at close, 10.1 crore shares have been accepted.
Source : Economic Times