Sudhir Valia, executive director of Sun Pharmaceuticals, and brother-in-law of founder Dilip Shanghvi, along with family and investment entities, has made an open offer to acquire up to 26 per cent equity stake more in Fortune Financial Services India from the public shareholders which may cost up to Rs 73.70 crore (approximately $12 million) if fully accepted, as per a stock market disclosure.
As per the open offer, Neostar Developers LLP, Aditya Infotech Pvt Ltd, and Chintan Vijay Valia, as acquirers, along with Sudhir V Valia, Raksha S Valia, Vijay M Parekh and Paresh M Paresh as persons in concert have proposed to buy 7.36 million equity shares, comprising to 26 per cent equity stake in Fortune Finance at a price of Rs 100 per share.
The open offer is not conditional upon any minimum level of acceptance.
The open offer follows a direct acquisition of 11.76 per cent equity stake by Neostar Developers and Aditya Infotech in Fortune Financial.
On November 24, Neostar Developers and Aditya Infotech signed a share purchase agreement with Fine Estate to acquire 7.84 per cent and 3.92 per cent stake in the company for Rs 25.8 crore.
Following the direct acquisition of 11.76 per cent, shareholding of Neostar Developers and Aditya Infotech will increase to 40.40 per cent and 21.77 per cent, respectively.
Sudhir Valia as the lead promoter already owns majority stake in Fortune Financial and this transaction consolidates his holding.
Shares of Fortune Financial were trading at Rs 144 per share, up 1.80 per cent on BSE on Friday at 12:38 pm in strong Mumbai market.
Given that the open offer price is much lower than the market price it is unlikely to yield much in terms of additional shares for Valia.
In 2012, Valia had also partnered with Telenor after the Norwegian telecom firm broke off its India JV with Unitech. Early this year it exited the venture by selling the stake back to Telenor.
Fortune Financial Services was founded in 1991 by JT Poonja and Nimish Shah, and went public in 1995. It has around 30 branches and 100 franchisees across India offering services like investment banking, equity and commodity broking, distribution, insurance and non-banking financial services in India. Poonja recently quit the board of Fortune Financial.
The company acquired Mumbai-based Antique Stock Broking some time back.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
