The erstwhile public shareholders of Essar Oil Ltd who tendered in their shares when the company delisted from the stock exchanges have received an additional ₹76.41 a share, said a press release from Essar Energy Holdings Ltd (EEHL). This amounts to an additional payout of ₹891 crore, making the total payout to shareholders ₹3,955 crore.
The additional payout has been calculated on the basis of the equity price per share of ₹338.28 received by Essar Energy upon completion of the Essar Oil sale to Russian oil major Rosneft and a consortium of Trafigura and UCP. The additional payout of ₹76.41 per share was calculated based on the closing price including interest at 10 per cent per annum for the extended period beyond the prescribed due-date.
Dhanpat Nahata, Director, EEHL, said: “Essar Energy has successfully completed the payment to the erstwhile public shareholders of Essar Oil. This exceptional payout is unparalleled in the history of capital markets and aligns with our thinking of rewarding shareholders who had invested and believed in us.”
Essar Oil was delisted in December 2015 and shareholders who tendered their shares were offered an exit price of ₹262.8 a share. After the promoters of Essar Oil sold 98 per cent of the company to its new Russian owners for $12.9 billion, the former shareholders were promised — as mandated by capital market regulator SEBI — an additional ₹75.48 a share. The deadline for this last payment was October 27, which the company had missed.