L&T gets over 60% holding in Mindtree; open offer over-subscribed

Construction major L&T has acquired a majority 60 per cent stake in Mindtree after its open offer to buy 31 per cent shares got over-subscribed, according to data available on stock exchanges.

Larsen and Toubro had bought 20.32 per cent shares in the IT firm from V G Siddhartha and his coffee enterprise for over Rs 3,000 crore in March and subsequently made an open offer to buy an additional 31 per cent stake.

L&T received bids for 5.54 crore shares on Thursday at the close of market hours.

This is 108.09 per cent higher than the total offer, as per information available on BSE.

The infrastructure major's open offer - for Rs 980 a share - opened on June 17 and is scheduled to close on Friday. The total size of the open offer was for 5.13 crore shares.

Mindtree founders had resisted the hostile bid initially and had tried rallying support from its large investors like Singapore-based Nalanda Capital and others.

However, with the likes of Nalanda and Arohi Asset Management having sold their shares in the open offer, there are speculations that the founders may also tender their shares.

The founders - Subroto Bagchi, N S Parthasarathy and Krishnakumar Natarajan - together hold about 13 per cent stake.

Interestingly, L&T has already secured three board positions at Mindtree that has eight members on the board (of which four were independent directors).

Mindtree co-founder Subroto Bagchi did not offer being considered for re-appointment to the board. The IT firm has remained silent on how it plans to accommodate the three new L&T representatives.

In March, L&T had acquired 20.32 per cent stake in Mindtree from VG Siddhartha and his coffee enterprise, marking India's first-ever hostile takeover bid in the IT space. It later picked up more shares of Mindtree from the open market to raise its holding to over 28 per cent.