Fast moving consumer goods company Hindustan Lever and Unilever Overseas Holdings BV, acting in concert with Lipton India Exports, have announced an open offer for acquiring the outstanding 10.38 per cent stake in Rossell Industries at Rs 120 a share.
At present, Unilever Overseas Holdings BV (UOH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever Plc, and Lipton India Exports, a 100 per cent subsidiary of HLL, together hold 89.62 per cent in Rosell.
If the Lever group is able to acquire more than 90 per cent of the issued and subscribed capital of Rossell Industries, the company will be delisted from the bourses. The move could be a precursor to a possible merger with HLL, analysts said.
The shares that are tendered pursuant to the current offer will also be acquired by Lipton India Exports.
Unilever Overseas Holdings had, in December 1999, acquired 37 lakh fully-paid up shares of Rs 10 each representing 36.56 per cent of the issued and subscribed capital of Rossell.
UOH also proposed to acquire 28.47 per cent stake of Rossell equity held by Y K Modi and his associates, subject to approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to acquire up to 74 per cent stake in the company.
In compliance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) regulations, UOH made an open offer to public shareholders of Rossell to acquire 35.38 lakh shares representing 34.97 per cent of share capital of Rossell at a price of Rs 173 per share.
Pursuant to the open offer, 24.88 lakh shares, representing 24.59 per cent of Rossell's capital, were acquired. This was over and above the 28.47 per cent stake acquired from Modi.
Since the application submitted to the FIPB on behalf of UOH was pending awaiting a final decision on foreign direct investment in plantation sector by the government, UOH finally withdrew it in March 2001 after waiting for one year.
Consequently, 53.69 lakh shares of Rossell, representing 53.06 per cent of RIL's equity, were acquired through Lipton India Exports.
