Indian conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in its filing informed that they have acquired 20.32 percent stake in IT services company Mindtree for 32.69 billion rupees ($476.57 million).
The acquisition was done after Mindtree promoters unconditionally opposed the hostile takeover bid by L&T.
L&T, who acquired the shares from Indian coffee baron V.G. Siddhartha and companies related to him, said it had also placed an order with its broker for an on-market purchase of up to 15 percent of Mindtree’s shares at 980 rupees apiece.
The promoters of Mindtree, including Krishnakumar Natarajan (executive chairman), Subroto Bagchi (co-founder), Rostow Ravanan (CEO) and Parthasarathy N.S. (executive vice chairman and COO) felt the hostile takeover by Larsen & Toubro, unprecedented in the industry, could undo all of the progress they’ve made and immensely set our organization back. They don’t see any strategic advantage in the transaction and strongly believe that the transaction will be value destructive for their shareholders.
L&T is also looking to buy an additional 31 percent from Mindtree’s public shareholders at the same price.
Siddhartha, who is a promoter of Coffee Day Enterprises and Coffee Day Trading, held a 3.33 percent stake in Mindtree at the end of December, stock exchange data showed. Coffee Day Enterprises and Coffee Day Trading hold a combined 17.08 percent stake in Mindtree.
The L&T group which also consists of software services business L&T Infotech, said it would extend business support to Mindtree, which will remain an independently listed entity.
As reported by India Infoline, L&T is expected to invest ~Rs 7,464cr to raise its stake to 66.32% in Mindtree, which will remain an independent listed entity. The deal consists of an open offer to acquire 31% shares at Rs5,030cr and an advisory to its broker Axis Capital to buy as much as 15% shares from the open market to the tune of Rs2,434cr, L&T said in a press note after markets hours to the exchanges on Monday.
L&T said in its statement said that Mindtree will benefit from access to larger client base and wider product offerings under a common parentage, giving higher returns to shareholders of Mindtree,
