First half open offer announcements at multi-year highs

Shareholders tendered shares worth Rs 21,038 crore

The number of open offers made in the first half of the financial year is at its highest in at least six years.

Forty six companies made open offers worth Rs 37,460 crore in the six-month period, according to statistics compiled by Prime Database. This is up several times over the Rs 1,721 crore worth of open offers in the same period last year.

Pranav Haldea, Managing Director of Prime said that this was largely because of the Rs 29,220 crore offer of Unilever PLC for Hindustan Unilever Ltd, which accounted for 78% of the value of the total offers.

Seven of the offers (worth Rs 31,189 crore) were made for consolidation of holdings. The remainder of the 39 offers were made under the category of substantial acquisition/change in control of management. Foreign entities made 11 offers, while domestic ones made 35. The second largest offer, after Unilever was the one made by Relay BV. It made a Rs 5,441 crore open offer for the shares of United Spirits.

“On the acceptance side, shareholders tendered shares for only Rs 21,038 crore or 56% of the offer amount made (same period last year Rs 578 crore). The HUL offer saw a 65% acceptance,” said the statement from Prime.