Unilever’s Rs 29,200-crore (Rs 292-billion) voluntary open offer, the largest so far, was intended to increase its stake in HUL from 52.48 per cent to up to 75 per cent, the maximum a promoter can own in a listed company.
About 320 million shares were tendered by investors for the 487-million-share open offer, around 65.71 per cent of the buyback issue.
After the open offer, Unilever’s stake in HUL will increase to 67.28 per cent from the current 52.5 per cent.
Unilever will have to pay Rs 19,202 crore (Rs 192.02 billion) to investors at Rs 600 a share. At Thursday’s exchange rate, this will lead to inflows of $3.19 billion into the country.
Unilever CEO Paul Polman said: “We are pleased to have received such a good response to our voluntary open offer and that -- as a result -- we will significantly increase our stake in Hindustan Unilever, an excellent Indian business with a proud heritage and the potential for attractive long-term growth.”
The company said in a release the payment for shares tendered and accepted will be completed on or before 18 July, at which point Unilever Plc would acquire full beneficial ownership of the shares tendered and accepted in the open offer.
It wasn’t clear whether large institutional shareholders like Aberdeen and LIC gave away their shares, though the market was abuzz with speculation that LIC and other state-owned banks were ‘nudged’ to part with a portion of their holdings, to stem the rupee’s fall.
Analysts said the response to Unilever’s
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