The stock of United Spirits fell one per cent to Rs 1,895.95 in early trades on the BSE on Tuesday as the UK-based Diageo plc's proposed open offer has been postponed.

The open offer to buy up to 26 per cent additional stake in United Spirits, will not start from January 7, as the company is yet to receive the formal nod from SEBI.

However, its group company Pioneer Distilleries, for which also Diageo made an open offer, was trading firm.

On the BSE, 49,000 United Spirits shares were traded compared with an average volume of 2.19 lakh shares over the past two weeks.

The stock hit a high of Rs 1,918.95 and a low of Rs 1,892.20 so far during the day.

A notification to stock exchanges from JM Financial Institutional Securities, issued after market hours on Monday, stated that "it was awaiting the final observations from the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the revised schedule of activities will be intimated in due course."

The open offer was originally slated to commence on January 7 and close on January 18.

UK's Diageo had announced an open offer in November 2012 to acquire up to 3.77 crore equity shares of United Spirits constituting 26 per cent the enlarged share capital of USL at Rs 1,440 per share.

Since Diageo Plc took indirect control through the acquisition of United Spirits, it also made an open offer to Pioneer Distilleries shareholders at a price of Rs 60 a share.

Diageo made open offer to the public shareholders of Pioneer Distilleries to acquire up to 24.66 lakh fully paid-up equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each, constituting the remaining 18.4 per cent of the voting share capital of the target company.

The Pioneer Distilleries was quoting 2.68 per cent higher at Rs 57.50 with just one share changing hands.

Related Topics