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Jayanta Mallick

Kolkata , Jan. 6

MINORITY shareholders of Ondeo Nalco India Ltd are eagerly awaiting the directive from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, as the date for opening of the proposed open offer for 20 per cent stake in the company draws near.

Earlier, a section of minority shareholders had raised objection to the proposed fresh open offer in Ondeo Nalco India, a water treatment and chemical company, by its new overseas parents.

The shareholders expressed reservations over the new offer price. A group of shareholders pointed out that the new offer also did not recognise the fact that the earlier SEBI verdict was contested by Suez, a French MNC and previous acquirer of 80 per cent stake in Ondeo Nalco (India). The case is now with the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).

A consortium of private investment companies comprising Blackstone Group, Apollo Management LP and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, by virtue of their recent acquisition of Ondeo Nalco, US, the parent of Ondeo Nalco India, now holds 80 per cent in the Indian outfit.

The new owners have placed a draft open offer to SEBI at Rs 288 per share. The fresh offer is supposed to open on January 15 and close on February 13. ICICI Securities is the manager to the offer.

According to merchant banking sources, it is a unique case, and any decision by SEBI would be considered as a landmark judgment setting a precedent. Though SEBI's clearance of a letter of offer is generally considered a "routine" procedural nod, in this case the market regulator will have to take a legal view on the fresh offer in the context of the unexecuted earlier offer.

According to SAT sources, the date for hearing of the petition on Ondeo Nalco India has not yet been fixed. The petitioners in the case have also not approached the SAT for withdrawal of the petition.

"The legal position is that the SAT cannot suo motu take cognisance of any material change in the case lying before it. The earlier case is still alive and sub-judice. As for the new open offer, SEBI has to take a view whether it merits to be allowed or not," a top SAT source told Business Line.

The minority shareholders pointed out that as per the earlier SEBI fiat, the offer price works out to Rs 370 per share and interest of around Rs 240 per share, at 15 per cent, calculated till the time Suez moved SAT in May 2003.

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