ABG pulls out of race to acquire Great Offshore

ABG Shipyard, which is locked in a take-over battle for Great Offshore with Bharati Shipyard, today backed out of the race by selling 8.27 per cent stake in the offshore drilling firm, a day after its rival raised the open offer price to Rs 590 per share.

"ABG Shipyard Ltd and Eleventh Land Developers Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ABG, have today announced the sale of 30,78,000 shares (approx 8.72 per cent of current paid up shareholding of Great Offshore) through a stock market sale," ABG Shipyard informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Consequent to this transaction, the cumulative shareholding of ABG Shipyard Ltd and Eleventh Land Developers Pvt Ltd in Great Offshore is 571 shares, ABG said.

ABG too was to have launched an open offer from tomorrow for increasing stake in the Great Offshore, but company officials could not be contacted for comments.

Yesterday, Bharti Shipyard had hiked its open offer price to Rs 590 a share to acquire an additional 20 per cent stake in Great Offshore. The company had earlier made an open offer for the 20 per cent stake at Rs 560 per share.

"At Rs 590 per share, Bharati would have to spend a total of Rs 461.78 crore to acquire 78,26,788 equity shares of Great Offshore, representing 20 per cent share-holding," Bharti Shipyard had said.

Last week, ABG said its open offer for a 32.12 per cent stake at Rs 520 per share in Great Offshore will begin on December 3.