Vedanta Ltd. received bids for minimum shares needed to delist the company on the last day of the process that was marked by a glitch.
Vedanta has so far received bids for 134.5 crore shares under its reverse book building, according to the exchange data. LIC, according to a Hindu Business Line report, has submitted its bids at Rs 320 apiece. The number of bids at Rs 320 is 31.9 crore shares, the maximum at that price.
LIC is the key institutional investor in Vedanta as it holds 6.5%, or 23.66 crore shares, in the miner. Other large institutions like ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual, too, hold more than 8%.
Earlier, merchant bankers are said to have asked the market regulator to extend Vedanta's delisting process by a day after retail investors complained that they were not able to submit bids due to a glitch on BSE Ltd.'s platform, according to two people aware of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Retail investors normally submit bids in the last two days, after institutional investors set the discovered price.
A query sent to Vedanta spokesperson remained unanswered.
The BSE webpage that displays the reverse-book building offers was down during the day. The information on the page is used by retail investors to assess the bid and price at which reverse-book building will happen. The webpage, however, was restored around noon.
The exchange website and exchange technology platform has taken orders for buyback of shares, both are working fine, BSE told BloombergQuint in an emailed statement.
Retail investors participating in the delisting process have to tender shares on the BSE platform to avail tax benefit. Else, once they surrender the shares after two months of the delisting process, they will be subjected to tax as applicable to unlisted shares.
Vedanta is looking to acquire 169.73 crore shares at a floor price of Rs 87.25 per share. It needs 134.12 crore shares to reach the threshold of delisting the company from the market. The delisting process does not include American Depository Shares held by the custodian. Vedanta will subsequently come out with a delisting offer for the ADS and delist the shares from the U.S. exchange.
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