Saroj Poddar’s Adventz Group on Thursday came out with another surprise open offer to shareholders of Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers (MCF) to acquire a further 25.9 per cent stake at ₹91.92 a share.
This is about ₹10 higher than the earlier offer of ₹81.60 made by Adventz Group. MCF shares closed on Thursday at ₹86.15.
In a filing to the BSE, Adventz Group companies, Zuari Agro and Zuari Fertiliser & Chemicals (person acting in concert), said they planned to acquire another 25.9 per cent in MCF by making a voluntary offer. The open offer is worth a total of ₹282.19 crore.
As the offer is voluntary, all the tendered shares under the open offer will be acquired by the company.
Zuari Agro and Deepak Fertilisers have been in a fierce takeover battle for MCF. In July, Pune-based Deepak Fertilisers, which has been eyeing a majority stake in MCF, started acquiring shares in the company from the open market.
Sensing that Deepak might end up acquiring a majority stake, Vijay Mallya, who did not have the funds to increase his group’s stake in MCF, sent feelers to Saroj Poddar asking him to up his stake in the company. Initially, Zuari increased its stake from 10 per cent to 16 by buying from the open market.
But when Deepak Fertilisers came out with an open offer to shareholders to further increase its stake in MCF, Zuari Agro threw its hat in the ring by making a counter offer.
Zuari Agro’s offer was for ₹81.6 while that of Deepak Fertilisers was ₹93.6 per share. Through the counter offer, Zuari was able to mop up about 40,000 shares while Deepak from its open offer did better and was able to increase its stake to about 31.25 per cent from 25.31 per cent .
On December 1, Mallya resigned from the MCF board after reports said a consortium of banks had forced him to step down by refusing to extend any further loans to companies that had him on the board.
The latest move from Adventz clearly indicates that Mallya still wants to remain in control of MCF. By getting his step mother, Ritu Mallya, who is very close to him, on the board of the company, he wants to consolidate his hold further.