Melstar Trading to buy 14.4% stake in Great Offshore from GE Shipping promoters between Rs 825-900; Melstar promoted by Vijay Sheth

Melstar Trading, controlled by Vijay Sheth will buy 14.4% stake in Great Offshore from GE Shipping promoters. Bharat Sheth, Ravi Sheth, Kanaiyalal Sheth will sell their stake. The stake will be acquired between Rs 825-900/share. Melstar's holding will rise to 18.58% post acquisition.

Recently, The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) panel has allowed Vijay Sheth, managing director of Great Offshore, to buy out the 18.5% stake held by the KM Sheth faction in GOL, without triggering an open offer. This paves way for Vijay’s takeover of GOL after two years of its demerger from the parent, GE Shipping, and ending an acrimonious family feud.

Mr Sheth had approached the stock market regulator seeking exemption under the SEBI takeover code to purchase shares from his cousins, without making an open offer to the remaining shareholders. Sources said in the case of a transfer of stakes between promoters, the takeover code does not apply, though an exemption from SEBI is necessary.

Analyst say that it does not matter whether deal is getting done at Rs 825 or Rs 900, because there is no open offer coming your way and its a mere transfer between the brothers. The only take away positive from this deal is the fact that Vijay Sheth now has sole charge as it is believed of Great Offshore and runs it pretty much as his own company without any of the conflicts which might have crept in.


Sterlite Industries hits 52- week high; ADR receives good response, closes at $ 14.7 vs issue price of $ 13.44

Sterlite Ind has touched a 52 week high of Rs 596.80 and an intra day low of Rs 572. Currently, the share is quoting at Rs 589.00, up Rs 29.10, or 5.20%. It is trading with volumes of 569,987 shares, compared to its 5-day average of 583,553 shares, an decrease of -2.32%. Yesterday the share closed up 2.85% or Rs 15.50 at Rs 559.90.

The ADR of the company, which listed yesterday received good response and closed at $ 14.7 vs issue price of $ 13.44 (9.3%), This works out to Rs 599.76 (CMP Rs 560).

Sterlite had raised $ 1.75 billion through the initial public offering of 13.04 crore shares in the form of ADS. After the offer, these shares represent around 18.9% interest in Sterlite. Sterlite's IPO is the biggest offering from India till date. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc, Morgan Stanley & Co and Citigroup were the underwriters, joint global coordinators and book-runners for the offering. Nomura Singapore is the underwriter for the public offering without listing in Japan.

In its filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission of the United States, Sterlite had said it would use the proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures and working capital, reduction of debt, acquisitions of complementary businesses and consolidation of the ownership in its subsidiaries.

Sterlite added that it planned to exercise the call option for acquiring the Government of India's remaining 29.5% ownership interest in Hindustan Zinc Ltd. This will be 26% if the government exercises its right to sell 3.5% of Hindustan Zinc to its employees. The company had also said funds raised from the issue would be used for its foray into power generation.

The company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Sterlite Energy, is planning to build the first phase, totalling 2,400mw, of a thermal coal-based power facility in Orissa.


Sterlite sold $ 1.75 Bn of stock in US, says this listing was just beginning for Indian companies in foreign markets

Sterlite - the copper and zinc producer controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal- sold $ 1.75 billion of stock in the US - that's the biggest overseas share sale by an Indian company. Anil Agarwal said that this listing was the just the beginning for Indian companies in the foreign markets.

Anil Agarwal, Non-Exec Chairman, Sterlite Industries said, “ This will put us on par with all the other major peers. People will start looking towards India. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. We are in ground level in India, we are investing in a big way on power sector which is phenomenal in the business of aluminium, copper, zinc, lead. to open up a new mine, people will be looking forward, great production will come, and they would like to participate in this growth.”

Dharmesh Mehta, Head-Equities, ENAM said, “The mood is good, people have been waiting for this 1st commodity stock to get listed in NYSE out of India. Supply creates demand, such a large IPO never talked in India is being successfully launched, no problem in cyclical market getting very impacted. Investors will have choices rather than sell some of his holdings to get into something else.”

Institutions lap up ICICI Bank follow-on offer on Day 1; Temasek puts in bid of Rs 8300 Cr

The mega follow-on public offering of ICICI Bank that opened for subscription on Tuesday received a thumbs-up from institutional investors, with quite a few high profile entities submitting substantial amount of bids, reports the ET. As per NSE data, the issue was subscribed 2.74 times, with bulk of the bids received in the institutional segment. The qualified institutional buyers (QIB) segment was subscribed around 5.47 times, with bids for 25.70 crore shares.

On an overall basis, bids for 27.09 crore shares were received on the first day, against 9.89 crore shares on offer in the price band of Rs 885 to Rs 950. The non-institutional investors segment has also been subscribed nearly 97% with the company receiving bids for 1.36 crore shares, against 1.14 crore shares on offer.

According to sources, the QIB segment has received large bids from entities like Temasek, Goldman Sachs, Warburg Pincus, State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India and other domestic financial institutions. While Temasek has put in the largest bid at Rs 8,300 crore, SBI and LIC have put in bids worth Rs 4,000 crore each.

Reliance Mutual Fund, Prudential ICICI AMC and Birla Sun Life AMC are also believed to have put in substantial bids on the first day of the issue. Bids of Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus are around Rs 2,000 crore each. Sources further add that a Mukesh Ambani group company put in a bid worth around Rs 1,000 crore.

Retail segment witnessed bids for 2.12 lakh shares on the first day. Incidentally, retail investors would be allotted shares at a discount of Rs 50 to the issue price. Meanwhile, the stock of ICICI Bank gained nearly 3% or Rs 26.55 on Tuesday to close at Rs 944.40 on BSE. The stock seems to be moving close to its 52-week high of Rs 1006.90 touched on February 9.

The issue is lead-managed by Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan at the global level and joined by ICICI Securities, JM Financial and Enam Financial Consultants in the domestic sale.