The Adani Group’s Rs 31,000 crore open offer for acquisition of 26% stake in ACC and Ambuja Cement has received a tepid response from investors.
Of the 48.95 million ACC shares the group had offered to buy, 4,061,184 shares were tendered as on Friday, the last day of the open offer, available data on the exchange showed. This amounts to 8.3% of the number of shares that were supposed to be tendered. At an offer price of Rs 2,300, the group has paid Rs 934 crore to buy the shares.
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For Ambuja Cement, 727,076 shares were tendered, forming 0.14% of the 516.3 million shares that were offered with a payout of about Rs 27.9 crore.
“The open offer of Ambuja and ACC saw limited participation from the holders as the market prices are trading way higher than open offer prices,” said Abhilash Pagaria, head of Edelweiss Alternative and Quantitative Research. “So all the special situations traders chose to sell it on screen instead of tendering as that’s a more viable option.”
Pagaria believes that a lot of long-term holders will continue to remain invested in either of the names as they continue to have faith in businesses.
ACC shares closed 2.3% lower at Rs 2,365 per share on the BSE on Friday, a 2.8% premium to the offer price of Rs 2,300, while Ambuja Cements slid 1.7% to Rs 453.9 apiece, a 17.7% premium to the offer price of Rs 385.
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Adani Enterprises shares traded flat at Rs 3,450 on the BSE.
Gautam Adani’s family-owned Endeavour Trade and Investments had made the offer to buy the 26% additional stake from public shareholders of Swiss firm Holcim’s Indian listed entities Ambuja Cements and ACC on August 26.
The Sebi-mandated offers were a result of the acquisition of Holcim’s 63.1% stake in Ambuja Cement and 4.48% stake in ACC, and a 50.05% stake held by Ambuja Cement in ACC. Holcim had signed a binding agreement for the transaction in May, marking the diversified Adani Group’s foray into the cement sector.
ICICI Securities and Deutsche India Equities are managing the offers. Antitrust regulator Competition Commission of India had given its approval to the deal last month.
