Open offers News

Markets regulator Sebi has notified relaxed norms for stake purchase in distressed listed companies by lenders, exempting them from making open offers for shareholders.

A total of 57 open offers for shares worth Rs 9,676 crore were made by the companies in the last year, latest data by Sebi showed.

As many as 73 listed companies made open offers worth nearly Rs 12,000 crore last fiscal ended March 31, a slump of 32 per cent from the preceding year

Total value of open offers made during the third quarter of the current fiscal nearly doubled to Rs 6,583 crore.

Open offers saw a drastic plunge during the first six months of the current fiscal, dropping to just over Rs 1,000 crore from Rs 13,000 crore in the year-ago period.

After a brief lull, listed companies made open offers worth Rs 588 crore to public shareholders in October, the second highest level seen in the first seven months of current financial year.

Besides, the number of open offers issued by the firms declined to 29 from 46 for the period under review.

Meanwhile, the Income Tax department is probing over 77 companies which had issued an open offer of more than Rs 25 crore in FY 13-14.

The overall worth of open offers for public shareholders hit a one-year high of Rs 12,549 crore in June, almost entirely on account of a mega offer by global liquor giant Diageo Plc to acquire stake in United Spirits.