Mumbai, July 19: Reliance Industries has garnered an additional 11.86 per cent stake in BSES via the open offer, taking its holding to 26.68 per cent. The open offer had closed on July 16, 2000. Pre-offer, Reliance controlled 14.82 per cent of BSES's equity share capital The Financial Express had reported on Tuesday that Reliance had picked up 11 per cent from the open offer. A company press release said that the merchant bankers' certificate as required under Regulation 24 (7) of the Sebi (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997, confirming all formalities under the Code, has been filed with Sebi.Reliance Industries Ltd, together with its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Power Ventures Ltd had on May 19, 2000, announced an open offer for the acquisition of 20 per cent of the equity share capital of BSES, for cash.
RIL had, on June 30, announced an upward revision in the open offer price for BSES to Rs 255 per share from its earlier offer of Rs 234.60 per share. The revised price was nearly 10 per cent more than the original offer price and a four per cent increase over the closing price of BSES share on June 30.
RIL said that the revised price represented the closing price of the BSES share on the date the public announcement of the open offer was made by the company. The price revision, it added, was meant to provide adequate time to the shareholders of BSES, particularly over 180,000 retail investors, to consider the revision and respond to the open offer, RIL added.
The RIL-BSES deal is seen as an ideal strategic fit as it will also help in leveraging the duo's synergies in telecom and internet ventures. BSES has recently started operations as an internet service provider and completed the laying of an opical fibre backbone in Mumbai which is in sync with RIL's stated strategy for the telecom and internet sectors.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.