Essar Tele offers 1377% prem to shareholders

Essar Teleholding, the telecom arm of Essar, has announced plans to make it a closely-held private entity, offering to acquire all the outstanding shares not held by the promoters - the Ruias.

The company said in an announcement to its shareholders that it has offered Rs 4,949 per share to acquire 1.68 lakh shares representing 3.37% of the total equity capital of the company, which would lead to a total outgo of Rs 83.14 crore.

The offer price is a premium of 1377% to the last traded price of Essar Teleholding of Rs 335 a share on October 29, 2004.

Retail investors hold 1.69% stake in the company while 1.68% is held by private corporate bodies.

Consequent to this offer, the company plans to delist its shares from the Bombay Stock Exchange as well as from the Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Delhi and Madras stock exchanges.

The promoter group currently holds 98.63% stake in the company. Shares would be delisted through a reverse book-building process, under which bidding starts from September 25 and closes on September 27.

The company said its shares have hardly been traded over the last 10 years and there was hardly any public interest in its equity structure.