AstraZeneca board okays delisting of shares

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The share price of pharmaceutical multinational company (MNC) AstraZeneca Pharma jumped as much as 7.60 per cent in the intra-day trades of Tuesday after the company's board of directors approved a delisting proposal by the Sweden-based promoters. The scrip later pared gains and settled 2.80 per cent higher at Rs 1,192.

The board members on Friday approved the delisting proposal by the parent firm, which comes a year after it reduced its stake in the Indian subsidiary from 90 per cent to 75 per cent via offer for sale (OFS) in order to comply with Sebi’s minimum public shareholding norms. The firm’s OFS had received an overwhelming response and the issue was subscribed by 4.86 times, BSE data showed. The floor price for the OFS was set at Rs 490 per share and the issue was offered at Rs 620 per share. At present, the share price has been hovering at Rs 1,200 per piece.

The stock has jumped 42.50 per cent alone this calendar where it traded anywhere between Rs 730 and Rs 1,230 levels. A delisting offer is deemed successful if the promoter’s stake rises to 90 per cent, or the firm manages to get more than half of stocks held by minority shareholders, whichever is higher. In the AstraZeneca case, the firm would thus require buying at least 15 per cent minority stakeholders’ stake.

A 15 per cent stake at present price amounts to Rs 440 crore while 25 per cent stake values at Rs 732 crore.

The offer price is determined through book building after fixation of floor price. The floor price is calculated by the average of 26 weeks traded price quoted on the stock exchange before the announcement. There is no ceiling on the maximum price.

“We see a 20 per cent premium over the prevailing prices,” said Rikesh Parikh of Motilal Oswal Securities.

A total of 18 foreign institutional investors held 15.93 per cent stake in the firm while non-institutional investors own 9.03 per cent stake. Domestic institutional investors have negligible stake.
 

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