Patni delisting gets 60% offers

For a successful delisting of Patni Computer Systems from the Indian bourses, iGate will need to shell out Rs 520 per share.

iGate, the majority shareholder in Patni has received offers for 16.2 million shares or 60.10 per cent of the total offer size of 26.8 million shares. According to the data available on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the maximum bids — of 14.3 million shares — came at Rs 520 per share. iGate had announced the opening of the delisting process on March 28, and had fixed the floor price for the buyback at Rs 356.74 per share.

“It needs to be seen whether iGate will agree to Rs 520 per share. However, my personal view is that iGate will agree to this price as that will help iGate to completely delist Patni and synchronise the business operations of both companies. At Rs 520 per share, the total payment that needs to be made by iGate for this delisting works out to around Rs 1,394 crore,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntula, strategist & head of research, SMC Global Securities.

When contacted, Sujit Sircar, CFO iGate-Patni said, “These are bids which have come in. We are yet to evaluate the final price.” The company has maintained it is comfortable to pay Rs 450 per share for delisting the company. In an earlier interview with Business Standard, Phaneesh Murthy, CEO and MD, iGate-Patni, had said: “Based on affordability and current share prices of Patni, I am not very confident that we can pull up and do the delisting very soon. As of now, we can only afford $215 million for the buyback. Anything more than that means it is unlikely to be able to delist.”

iGate, along with private equity player Apax Partners, had acquired the Patni promoters’ stake in a $1.2-billion deal, and had paid Rs 503 per share.

The company also raised an additional $215 million for the buyback via debt.

At present, iGate owns around 83 per cent of Patni’s share, if the company decides not to go ahead with the buyback, the promoters will have to bring down their shareholding to 75 per cent. Patni’s stock price closed at Rs 498.15 per share, up 1.8 per cent.