A day after Bharati Shipyard made a sizeable investment in its peer, Great Offshore, the ship building company garnered significant interest and shares surged by over 12.5% to close at Rs 107.40. Analysts in the trade reckon that the deal gave clarity about the status of the earlier pledged shares issue.

Bharati Shipyard had acquired 55,33,786 shares representing 14.89% stake in Great Offshore at a price of Rs 315 per share. This move was following an invocation of shares which the promoters of the offshore drilling firm had pledged with Bharati Shipyard?s subsidiaries.

The fact that Bharati Shipyard is not interested in taking over Great Offshore is also seen as a positive. P C Kapoor, the managing director of Bharati Shipyard mentioned, ?This is only a strategic investment and nothing beyond. We are not looking to take over the management control and there are no plans for an open offer as well?.

Analysts at Emkay Research reckon that this would be a better option than that of acquiring Great Offshore. This way the company will be able to enjoy the benefits of earnings from the acquisition and will not have to contract extra debt. For Great Offshore analysts said, ?Prima face we see the development as positive for Great Offshore, as it allays investor concern regarding uncertainty of ownership of the company. The issue that is not clarified is will Seth continue to be the managing director of Great Offshore, which in turn can allay concern of clients like ONGC?.

Earlier, ONGC had raised issues on performance guarantee for contracts, when Great Offshore was demerged from GE Shipping.

Meanwhile, Great Eastern Shipping, former parent of Great Offshore, reported a 16.48% decline in standalone net profit at Rs 250.05 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2009. And, total income dipped 32% to Rs 534.25 crore for the March quarter, from Rs 783.66 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. And for the entire financial year 2008-09, the consolidated net profit of Rs 1,417.83 crore was down 2.44% crore over the previous year and total income rose 19.07% to Rs 4,046.03 crore.