BackBharati ups offer for Great Offshore; ABG may counter
Bharati ups offer for Great Offshore; ABG may counter
Premium
Mumbai: ABG Shipyard on Thursday said it may counter Bharati Shipyard’s sweetened offer for Great Offshore, as the battle for the oil rig and offshore platform company, valued at about $440 million, intensifies, lifting shares of all three firms.
The bidding war between the shipbuilders for control of Great Offshore was kicked off early this year when Bharati made an open offer for 20% of Great Offshore after acquiring a near-15% stake.
ABG Shipyard came in with a counter offer and since then the firms have raised their offers at least once.
Late on Wednesday Bharati said it had raised its offer price for Great Offshore shares to Rs560, valuing the provider of oil rigs and offshore platforms at about $430 million and is almost 8% higher than ABG’s last revised price of Rs520 a share.
An ABG company official, declining to be identified, told Reuters on Thursday the company was prepared to raise its offer price.
Bharati bought 3.01% of Great Offshore from the open market on Wednesday through bulk deals on the BSE and NSE, taking its stake to 22.48%.
NSE data also showed Videocon Industries had sold 223,600 shares in Great Offshore at about Rs557 a share.
Shares in Great Offshore, which rose over 3% to a 52-week high of Rs584 earlier in the session, eased to trade 0.2% higher at Rs566.10 at 12:27 pm.
Bharati shares rode up as much as 8.3%, while ABG Shipyard rose over 4% during the day. Bharati, whose original offer for Great Offshore was at Rs344, later raised it to Rs405 a share.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
