Kolkata-based industrialist Saroj Poddar-led Zuari group has decided to buy more shares of Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers (MCF) through the proposed open offer.
The size of the voluntary open offer has now been increased to 4.33 crore shares, as against the earlier proposal of 3.07 crore f MCF shares. This constitutes 36.56 per cent of the company’s fully diluted voting equity share capital. Earlier, the company had targeted 25.9 per cent stake in MCF through the open offer. However, the company has not changed the open offer price, which remains at ₹91.92 a share. The MCF stock on Tuesday closed at ₹89.90 on the BSE.
Following the increase in size, the Zuari group would now have to spend ₹116 crore more to buy the shares. The total size of the offer has now increased to ₹398.28 crore from the earlier ₹282.19 crore.
Mallya’s moveIn a bid to ward off a takeover threat from Deepak Fertilizers, Vijay Mallya (original promoter of MCF) had sided with the Zuari group and launched a counter offer. After the open offers of Deepak and rival Zuari-UB group closed on October 20, Deepak Fertilisers’ stake in MCF increased by about 6 per cent to about 32 per cent while that of the Zuari-UB group combine inched up to 38.4 per cent.