After a two-year wait, the erstwhile minority shareholders of Essar Oil will see final payments on their shares by December 10.
The final payout — part of the last tranche due to shareholders — has risen from ₹880 crore to about ₹910 crore, on account of an additional interest payment for the delay, sources close to the development told BusinessLine .
Essar Oil was de-listed 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 at Rosneft for $12.9 billion, the former shareholders were promised — as mandated by SEBI — an additional ₹75.48 a share. The deadline for this last payment was October 27, which the company had missed.
The Essar group had asked SEBI for an eight-week extension on the deadline as adjustments had to be made to the consideration between the former and current owners.
According to a person who was privy to the development, after the announcement of the deal’s closure, Rosneft had raised concerns about the valuation of certain assets and liabilities, which could have brought down the deal value.
This discussion has since been settled, the person added, and the sale value to Rosneft remains $12.9 billion. Fears that the payment to shareholders would reduce as a result have now been laid to rest, he said.
A spokesperson for the Essar group declined to comment on these discussions and on the payment to shareholders.
JN Gupta, MD, Stakeholders Empowerment Services, a proxy advisory firm, said the additional payment was justified since “the approval for de-listing was given by minority shareholders before they knew about the Rosneft acquisition”.
“The final per-share price is still marginally below our calculations. But this is still a positive for shareholders ... that this deal is finally closed,” he added. “They’ve completed an undertaking they gave to SEBI and shareholders.”
After this last tranche is paid out, Essar group would have successfully closed all aspects of the sale of its oil refining and marketing company to Rosneft. The total payout to minority shareholders will now stand at ₹4,655 crore, the largest ever de-listing in Indian stock market history.