ABG, Bharati may get parallel dates for Great Offshore offer

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) may give parallel dates to ABG Shipyard and Bharati Shipyard for their open offers to buy additional stake in Great Offshore.

The open offer as announced by Bharati Shipyard was supposed to be from July 25 to August 13. But the company has yet to get the mandatory approval from the market regulator, so the bid has yet to start. ABG Shipyard has announced its open offer for August 13 to September 1 and it is also waiting for approval.

“Since there has been frequent revision in offer prices by the bidders, the regulator has not issued the clearance yet,” said a person familiar with the development.

Bharati Shipyard acquired a 14.89 per cent stake in Great Offshore in May, at a price of Rs 315 per share, from its vice chairman and managing director, Vijay Sheth, following an invocation of shares which he had pledged. This left Sheth with less than 1 per cent stake in the company and he lost control. Following this, on June 4, Bharati made an open offer to acquire an additional 20 per cent stake in the company at Rs 344 a share.

On June 23, ABG Shipyard, a rival of Bharati, made a counter-offer to acquire 33.8 per cent in Great Offshore at Rs 375 a share. On the same day, Bharati acquired an additional 14.5 per cent in a bulk deal at Rs 403 a share and later increased its open offer price to Rs 405 a share.

ABG Shipyard further upped the ante by purchasing an additional 6 per cent stake in three tranches from the open market and increased its open offer price to Rs 450 a share and finally to Rs 520 a share. The aggressive bids by the two companies saw the share price of the company rise to a one-year high of Rs 579 a share last week.

For both shipbuilders, the acquisition will take them a step further in the offshore services business and turn the buyer into an integrated firm, though a price war may erode the benefits of the acquisition.