The open offer made by US-based technology outsourcing company Virtusa Corp for acquiring shares of Polaris Consulting Services is seeing a positive response with many shareholders tendering their shares.
The Rs 590-crore open offer, which closes on March 28, has already seen shares amounting to nearly 48 per cent of the proposed offer size being tendered, according to data available on BSE website.
The mandatory open offer has been made by Virtusa Consulting Services, Virtusa Corporation and Virtusa International BV after the entities entered into an agreement to purchase 53 per cent of the equity share capital of Polaris.
According to the regulatory framework, any entity that acquires more than 25 per cent stake in a listed company has to make an open offer to acquire another 26 per cent shares of the company.
The rationale is that if any shareholder wants to exit the company due to the change in shareholding then such shareholders should be given a suitable exit option.
According to BSE website, shareholders have tendered a total of 1.27 crore shares, representing 47.57 per cent of the proposed open offer for 2.67 crore shares. The floor price for the open offer has been fixed at Rs220.73 per share, which represents a slight premium to the current market price of Rs 212.95.
Incidentally, the open offer document clarifies that the acquirer has no intention to delist the company post the open offer, and the stock will continue to trade on the stock exchanges.
Shares of Polaris have managed to outperform the market in the recent past. In the current year, while the Sensex has lost 3.01 per cent, Polaris shares have gained 1.21%, as per data available on Bloomberg.
Virtusa US is engaged in the business of providing information technology consulting services, technology implementation and application outsourcing services primarily to enterprises in industries such as communications & technology, banking, financial services & insurance, and media and information.
