S&P open offer for Crisil to open on April 6

The voluntary conditional open offer of Standard & Poor's (S&P) to raise its stake in the domestic rating agency Crisil will open on April 6 and close on April 25.

The conditional offer is for 3,534,488 shares of Crisil, subject to a minimum response of 2,643,983 shares at Rs 680 per share. The offer is subject to regulatory approval, that of the Foreign Investment and Promotion Board (FIPB) and the Reserve Bank of India.

S&P proposes to acquire at least 51 per cent stake in Crisil if not a maximum of 65 per cent. S&P currently holds 9.45 per cent in Crisil.

If S&P's offer is entirely successful and its holding rises to 65 per cent, the global agency would make an investment of about Rs 240 crore. The funding will be done through internal accruals.

The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc (MHC) will acquire the shares on behalf of its S&P division.

As per the public announcement to the shareholders of Crisil issued by Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, the last date for a competitive bid would be March 14.

S&P has retained the right to revise the open offer price and the offer size until April 11. Should S&P not be able to acquire the minimum 51 per cent holding in Crisil, the entire deal would be called off.

S&P's public announcement pointed out that it does not have any plans to dispose of or otherwise encumber any assets of Crisil in the next two years except in the ordinary course of business of the target company.

It added, however, that the assets could be disposed of or encumbered for the purpose of restructuring by way of amalgamations, mergers or demergers and/or rationalisation of operations, assets, investments, liabilities or otherwise of the target company if required.

Crisil's share price today closed at Rs 689.70 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up from Rs 680.25 yesterday.