Promoter turns public in no time!
Shareholding pattern filed with the exchange in January was revised in February and the promoter who held 62.73% equity is reclassified as public!
Vadodara-based Styrenix Performance Materials Ltd is a strange company in many ways. In last three decades, the company has changed its name as many as seven times. Its original promoter sold the company on the eve of its Silver Jubilee and bought it back on the eve of its Golden Jubilee.
Surprisingly, MNC INEOS Styrolution sold its stake to the Indian promoter at a time when the company had achieved its best performance. What’s more, the MNC sold its stake at less than one-third of the peak price. Just before the MNC selling its stake, for the first time in its long history, the company came out with bumper special and interim dividends aggregating to Rs 297 per share which benefited the MNC to the tune of Rs 253 Cr.
The acquirer, whose net worth was less than Rs 60 Cr, committed to buy the MNC’s stake for a consideration of more than Rs 600 Cr. The transaction between the MNC and the Indian promoter triggered a mandatory tender offer to the non-promoter shareholders. The company fixed a price of Rs 848.72 for a share which was claimed to be the `volume-weighted average market price’ of the shares for a period of sixty trading days immediately preceding the date of the public announcement i.e. August 1, 2022 as traded on NSE. The tender offer opened on September 21, 2022 when the market price of the stock is hovering above Rs 900 which made the open offer meaningless.
After the open offer the so called Indian promoter Shiva Performance Materials Ltd (SPML) has been holding 62.73% in Styrenix. The quarterly disclosure filed by the company on January 18, 2023 presented SPML’s holding as promoter’s stake. But, three weeks later, on February 9, 2023, the company made a revised filing which lists SPML’s stake under the `Public’ category!
How has the promoter become a `public’ investor? Can SPML dump its stake in the market at its will? The company is yet to reply the e-mail sent in this regard.