Essar Oil’s delisting on Wednesday came through with markets regulator SEBI giving its go-ahead to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to accept nearly two crore shares tendered by the state-run LIC for the promoters’ buyout offer.
The delisting had got mired in ‘technicalities’ on the last day of the offer on Monday after a large block of tendered shares could not be ‘confirmed’ within the stipulated time, prompting BSE to refer the matter to SEBI. While the promoters’ buyback offer had got more than sufficient bids, the non-confirmation of over 1.98 crore shares tendered by LIC till the time of closure at 3.30 pm on Monday had come in the way of the closure of the delisting offer.
The offer is said to have received total bids for an estimated 10.1 crore shares, as against a requirement for 9.26 crore shares for the offer to succeed. The issue was subsequently looked into by all the entities concerned – Essar Oil, LIC, BSE and the custodian for LIC shares, StockHolding Corp.
The delisting offer saw shares getting tendered at a Reverse Book Build discovered price of Rs 262.80 each, which is at about 80 per cent premium to the floor price of Rs 146.05.
Essar Oil shares had closed sharply higher at Rs 243.35 at BSE on Monday, a gain of nearly 8.5 per cent. The stock was down more than 1 per cent yesterday, but bounced back today and was trading nearly 6 per cent higher at Rs 253.65 in morning trade.
The delisting offer for the country’s second—biggest private sector oil refiner had begun on December 15.
The delisting had got mired in ‘technicalities’ after a large block of shares could not be ‘confirmed’
