ABG ups ante again in Great Offshore battle

The battle for Great Offshore just keeps hotting up.

Less than a week after hiking — by default — its open offer price for the rig maker, ABG Shipyard once again did so on Monday when it bought 1.5 lakh shares in the open market on the Bombay Stock Exchange (80,000 shares) and the National Stock Exchange (70,000 shares).

The average price of the transactions was Rs 498, but the the highest price paid was Rs 520 for the share, which automatically made that ABG’s open offer price according to Securities and Exchange Board of India’s Substantial Acquisition of State and Takeover rules, or the so-called takeover code.

That’s about 39% more than what ABG bid on June 23.

Under the takeover code, if a company makes an open offer at a particular price and then goes on to buy shares at a higher price, that higher price automatically becomes the open offer price.

Also, rules say all shareholders who had surrendered their shares in the previous offers of ABG — which is Rs 375 and Rs 403 — will also get the same Tuesday’s price — Rs 520 — for their stake.

It all started on June 3 when Bharati Shipyard first made an open offer for 20% Great Offshore stake at Rs 344 a share.

On June 23, ABG Shipyard made a counter offer for Rs 375. The same day, ABG bought close to 17 lakh shares or 4.58% equity of Great Offshore at Rs 403 — which automatically became the new open offer price.

On July 29, ABG again bought 19.26 lakh shares of Great Offshore at Rs 450 per share. It bought another chunk of 2.5 lakh shares at the same price on July 30, taking its total stake in the rig maker to 7.71%.

PC Kapoor, managing director of Bharati Shipyard, was not available for comment, nor were ABG Shipyard officials.

Kapoor was in a huddle with Bharati officials late on Tuesday, a company source told DNA.

Earlier, Kapoor had said Bharati’s investment in Great Offshore was strategic in nature and that the company will not exit irrespective of who joins the shareholder’s list.