GE's open offer for Alstom India draws a blank

New Delhi: US giant GE's Rs 770 crore open offer to acquire 1.74 crore publicly-held shares in Alstom India has elicited a poor response, with just 13,789 shares getting tendered.

General Electric's open offer for Alstom T&D has also met with a similar fate.

The US major has accepted offer for 13,789 shares tendered by shareholders for Rs 60.71 lakh under its open offer to acquire 1.74 crore shares for Rs 769.64 crore, Alstom India said in a BSE filing today.

Earlier, the company had told BSE: "An independent directors' committee (IDC) is of the view that the offer price (Rs 440.32 per share) for public shareholders of the target company is in accordance with Sebi regulations. The shareholders should independently evaluate the offer and take informed decision in this regard."

IDC, headed by Uddesh Kohli, had other members as K Vasudevan and Arun K Thiagarajan.

It has advised shareholders in view of a higher share price of over Rs 650 on BSE.

The stock was trading at Rs 575, down 0.44 percent, on BSE at 1429 hours.

The offer opened on January 18 and closed on February 1, 2016. The last date for payment of consideration was February 15.

According to the statement, GE acquired 0.02 percent stake in the company through this open offer. It wanted to acquire 26 percent stake in Alstom India.

Yesterday, Alstom T&D India had informed BSE that GE's Rs 1,926-crore open offer to acquire 6.4 crore publicly-held shares in Alstom T&D India received just 43,439.

GE, the statement said, accepted offer for 42,570 shares out of 43,439 tendered by shareholders, for Rs 1.28 crore under its open offer to acquire 6.4 crore shares for Rs 1,926 crore.

The statement said that post offer, GE acquired 0.02 percent of the equity while it planned to take over 25 percent stake through the open offer.

The US-based energy and healthcare giant General Electric Co (GE) had made the open offer following its USD 16.9 billion bid to acquire the global energy assets of French multinational Alstom.

Alstom has two listed entities in India with business interests in power generation and transportation (Alstom India) and transmission and distribution (Alstom T&D).

The French parent owns 68.56 percent stake in Alstom India and 75 percent in Alstom T&D.

GE has made the open offers for buying all the publicly-held shares in both the companies.