Sanwarmal pledges Rs 113 cr Pilani shares to finance FGL counter-offer

Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai, Nov 5: Mr Pawamkumar Sanwarmal, has pledged 1,45,000 shares of Pilani Investments and Industries Corporation amounting to Rs 112.66 crore as part of his funding arrangements for the 20 per cent counter-open offer for Forbes Gokak at Rs 88.50 a share.
The value of the holding pledged to raise funds for the said counter-offer amounts of the Rs 55.41 crore to be placed in the escrow account or 25 per cent of the total consideration with a margin of 50.82 per cent.

According to the a copy of the counter-offer document published in the dailies on Monday, Mr Sanwarmal has also placed a cash-deposit of Rs 2.21 crore or one per cent of the purchase consideration payable under the said offer in an escrow account with Citibank.

The maximum consideration to be paid out by the acquirers in case of full acceptance of the offer — 25,04380 full paid equity shares of Forbes Gokak — at the open offer price of Rs 88.50 is Rs 221.63 crore, which is to be funded from internal accruals and domestic borrowings or sale of investments.

Mr Sanwarmal has made a counter offer after Pallonji Mistry made an open offer for the company with a Rs 80 per share offering. Earlier, Sterling Investments Corporation Private Ltd in concert with Shapoorji Pallonji & Company Ltd and Cyrus Investments Ltd had made an open offer for the acquisition of 24,90,681 equity shares, representing 20 per cent of the issued and paid up capital of Forbes Gokak.

The issued subscribed and paid up equity share capital of Forbes Gokak as on the date is Rs 12.45 crore comprising 1,24,53,402 fully paid up equity shares of face value Rs 10 each. According to a copy of the counter-offer filed with the Securities and Mr Sanwarmal’s open offer will be for 25,04,380 shares amounting to 20.11 per cent of Forbes Gokak’s equity.

The counter-bidder acquired these shares at an average price of about Rs 50. These shares were acquired through Man-Made Fibres Pvt Ltd (Rs 50,500 shares at an average price of Rs 52.73), Dalal Street Investments (49,500 shares at Rs 50.11) and Resham Resha (53,302 at Rs 48.40).

While Man-Made is the company which will make the counter offer, those acting in concert are Dalal Street Investments, Resham Resha, SM Sheti Seva Pvt Ltd, Mack Trading Company, Keen Investment and Leasing Ltd and Mr Sanwarmal.