BL reported that the tug of war between Bharati Shipyard and ABG Shipyard to gain control of Great Offshore has now hit a stumbling block with SEBI yet to give statutory approval for the open offer process.

Simply put, it means that the original open offer schedules mentioned in the first public announcement and further revisions made by Bharati and ABG are of little consequence. The process will kick in when SEBI gives the go ahead.

Bharti’s open offer ended on August 13 while ABG’s offer came to an end on September 1. Both revised their offer prices with Bharati’s latest being INR 405 on July 6 and ABG revising it to INR 520 earlier this month through a series of bulk and block deals.

A merchant banker associated with the acquisition said that “We are now awaiting SEBI go ahead and will have to rework our 20 day open offer program.”

Industry sources said offers of Bharati and ABG will remain open simultaneously during the 20 day open offer period. A source said that “One could then see a price war on the lines of what happened in the last few months.”

Mr Dhananjay Datar CFO of ABG Shipyard said that SEBI had not indicated anything. All eyes are on Bharati, which, sources say is in talks with various bankers to raise funds. This could be one of the discussion points at board meeting. The company has also decided to go in for a preferential allotment of convertible bonds to its promoters and also issue more shares.

Bharati seems to have an edge over ABG as it has a 19% stake in Great Offshore. Of this 14.89% was bought at INR 315 a share on May 1. Bharati has spent around INR 300 crore for the takeover.

(Sourced from Business Line)