L&T acquires 51.8% stakes of Mindtree

Larsen and Toubro Ltd acquires 51.8% of shares in Mindtree Ltd, it is the first hostile takeover in the IT sector. CNBC TV18 channel reported the acquisition today, the report comes within a few months of Mindtree rejecting a hostile takeover bid from L&T.

L&T invested strategically to take control over Mindtree, first, it bought 20.32% stake held by Café Coffee Day (CCD) founder V.G. Siddhartha and two of his firms in March. Subsequently, L&T bought 8.58% stake from other shareholders, and this resulted total ownership to 28.90% before the company’s open offer started on 17 June, ending on 28 June.

Shareholders still can sell their shares to L&T for ₹980 per share, 73.9% of public shareholders have sold their shares to L&T at ₹980 a share. At 12:30 on Wednesday, 3,79,65,103 shares had been tendered, according to data provided by the National Stock Exchange.

L&T has the option to buy another 15% shares as it plans to spend ₹10,800 crore to own 66% in Mindtree, making it the first hostile acquisition for the Indian IT industry.