Shapoorji Offers Rs 80 For Forbes Gokak Pie

Shapoorji Pallonji & Co, the flagship of construction baron Pallonji Mistry, along with Sterling Investment and Cyrus Investments announced an open offer today to acquire an additional 20 per cent stake in Forbes Gokak at Rs 80 per share.

The open offer to acquire over 24.9 lakh fully paid-up equity shares follows the increase in the stake of the Pallonji Mistry group in Forbes Gokak to 14.88 per cent, after the Tata group's decision to offload 6.77 per cent stake, a part of their 14.82 per cent holding, in the company earlier this week.

The maximum outgo towards the open offer by the Pallonji Mistry group could be around Rs 19.92 crore, and would eventually depend on the response from both retail and institutional investors.

On successful completion of the offer, the group's stake in Forbes Gokak is expected to touch 34.88 per cent. The offer will open on November 28 and is closing on December 27.

In line with the Tata group's vision, which considers textiles as non-core business, it will sell the balance 8.05 per cent stake held by Tata Investment Corporation in Forbes Gokak during the open offer.

The offer price of Rs 80 was 57 per cent higher than the closing price of the company's scrip of Rs 50.80 on Monday, when the group finalised the deal. The Forbes Gokak scrip on Friday closed at Rs 52.15 after opening at Rs 58 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.