Zuari says offer to buy over 36% stake in MCFL oversubscribed

Zuari group is set to have a majority stake of over 53 per cent in Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd (MCFL) as its open offer to buy 36.56 per cent share in the Vijay Mallya-led UB group firm for nearly Rs 400 crore has been successful.

Zuari group's open offer to acquire an additional 36.56 per cent stake in MCFL started on April 20. It currently has 16.47 per cent stake in the fertiliser firm.

The group will complete the process of acquiring about 4.33 crore shares from MCFL's shareholders during this week, raising its stake to 53.03 per cent.

"Our open offer has been oversubscribed and I am planning to meet Vijay Mallya by the end of this month. I along with Mr Mallya, will work towards making MCFL one of the premier fertiliser companies in the country," Zuari Group Chief Saroj Poddar told PTI.

Zuari was competing with Deepak Fertilisers for taking control of MCFL since July 2013, but latter withdrew from the race and has been selling shares of MCFL through open market.

"Against our offer to acquire 4.33 crore shares of MCFL, as many as 5.2 crore shares have been tendered. But we can acquire only the shares offered in the open offer," Zuari Global Managing Director Suresh Krishnan said.

These shares would be transferred in favour of Zuari group companies during this week, Krishnan added.

After the transfer of these shares, Zuari group would have 53.03 per cent stake in MCFL. UB group, the original promoter, has 21.97 per cent stake.

As per the shareholding pattern on BSE, both Zuari group and UB group are in the list of promoters. Together, they will have 75 per cent stake in MCFL.

Zuari group had announced the open offer in December 2014 to buy 4,33,29,000 shares in MCFL at Rs 91.92 per share.

Meanwhile, Pune-based Deepak Fertilisers has reduced its stake in the MCFL to 6.43 per cent from 31.25 per cent since December last year.

MCFL has a urea plant near Mangaore port with annual capacity to produce about 4 lakh tonnes of urea and about 3 lakh tonnes of phosphatic fertilisers. Zuari group has fertiliser plant in Goa.