New Delhi, June 2 : Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) picked up 7.11 lakh shares of IT firm Mindtree between May 27-30 for about Rs 70 crore, according to regulatory data.
The development assumes significance as L&T has been steadily increasing its holding in the Bengaluru-based tech firm where it acquired around 20 per cent stake of V G Siddhartha and Cafe Coffee Day last month.
L&T, which has been pursuing a hostile takeover of Mindtree, has expressed its intent to ramp up its shareholding up to 66 percent.
According to BSE data, L&T acquired shares from the open market throughout the week (May 27-30) with the highest quantum of shares being purchased on May 28 when it picked up over 3.5 lakh shares of Mindtree at Rs 979.98 apiece.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation showed that the company spent close to Rs 70 crore during the week for these transactions, which took its overall shareholding to 28.88 per cent.
In multiple tranches, L&T mopped up more than 7.11 lakh shares during the said week. Shares of Mindtree ended flat at Rs 977.70 apiece on BSE on Friday (May 31).
In March, L&T mounted a hostile takeover bid on Mindtree when it entered into a deal to buy Cafe Coffee Day owner V G Siddhartha’s 20.32 percent stake in Mindtree and also placed an order with brokers to pick up another 15 per cent of the company shares from the open market.
Subsequent to these deals, L&T is required to make an open offer to buy additional stake. In all, the infrastructure major is eyeing up to 66 percent stake in Mindtree for around Rs 10,800 crore.
L&T’s open offer – which was earlier slated to begin on May 14 – has been delayed as the engineering major is awaiting nod from the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Emails sent to L&T didn’t elicit a response.
