L&T MD and CEO says the deal 'protects Mindtree against hostile takeover' and someone else would have moved if L&T didn't
L&T would pay Siddhartha Rs 3,269 crore and Rs 5,030 crore for the open offer, as per filings made by L&T and Mindtree
(Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Larsen & Toubro Ltd would spend up to 70 billion rupees ($1.02 billion) in a hostile bid to buy IT services company Mindtree Ltd, the Times of India (TOI) reported citing sources directly involved with the matter.
Mindtree is already trading at two times its enterprise value to revenues and the buyback at an expected at a price of Rs 1,000-1,200 would take the share price even higher
Mindtree faces the risk of management change as its largest shareholder is reportedly in talks with a rival technology firm to offload his stake
Support of key institutional investors crucial in case of an open offer
In January, A M Naik, executive chairman of the L&T group, had confirmed that the engineering major was looking at acquiring a stake in Mindtree
Rostow Ravanan says with founders at helm, company is best placed to protect sharehoders' interest; L&T board meet may take final call
Such a move by any rival IT firm may lead to value erosion for both entities
Mindtree's founders are unwilling to shed their holding as the mid-tier firm is showing a strong growth momentum
Promoters stake sale not on cards, says management
Current contract pipeline, as well as demand growth across verticals, are positives for the company
Siddhartha, who first invested in Mindtree in 1999, holds 21% in the IT services firm through his various entities
A lot of large investors exited after Mindtree's listing on the bourses
The move comes at a time when the traditional software maintenance and support works are slowly drying up
In dollar terms, Mindtree posted $246.4 million in revenues, a growth of 19.5 per cent y-o-y and two per cent sequentially.
Net profit rises 65%, travel & hospitality, hi-tech segments drive growth
The Board of Directors have declared an interim dividend of Rs 3 per equity share
The endowment will empower the academic institution with industry specific knowledge and resources to help create solutions to accelerate the growth and adoption of Data Science and AI globally
In past one year, shares of MindTree had outperformed the market by surging 109% as compared to 15% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex till Wednesday.