The Essar group will pay an additional Rs 75.48 per share to Essar Oil's ex-shareholders, who tendered their shares at the open offer in the run-up to the delisting of the company that was sold to the Russian major Rosneft for $12.9 billion on Monday. Public shareholders of Essar Oil will get a total amount of Rs 880 crore from the company. The issue of additional payout to the ex-minority shareholders followed criticism that the promoters enriched themselves too much with the delisting. This prompted Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to intervene and ask the promoters to pay back the margin between the delisting price and final transaction price between the Ruias and Rosneft and a consortium led by the Dutch commodity trader Trafigura and the Russian investment bank UCP. "This is the first instance where public shareholders are being rewarded even after tendering their shares in a delisting process," the company said. EOL was valued at Rs 2,000 crore when it was listed in 1995, and has now been valued at about Rs 50,400 crore, a growth of 2,420 per cent when it was taken private again. "Essar Oil public shareholders to receive an additional Rs 880 crore or Rs 75.48 per share over delisting price taking the total payout to Rs 3,944 crore from Rs 3,064 crore," the group said in a statement. The decision follows its public announcement and is also pursuant of the Sebi's direction. Former minority shareholders, who had tendered EOL shares in the delisting Offer of February 2015, will receive the differential amount of Rs 75.48 for every share tendered. This is the additional payout over and above the price of Rs 262.80 per share paid to shareholders at the time of delisting on the basis of equity price per share of Rs 338.28 received by Essar upon completion of the deal, the company said. The Essar group had concluded sale of its crown jewel Essar Oil and the adjacent to captive 58 million tonne oil terminal, a 1,010-mw power plant and over 3,500 fuel outlets to the Russian government-controlled Rosneft for an enterprise valuation of $12.9 billion. The deal is the largest foreign direct investment into the country as also the largest out of Russia till date. Essar Energy Holdings director Dhanpat Nahata said, "the additional payment to minority shareholders is unprecedented as they got exit and liquidity upon delisting in December 2015, retained the upside from the transaction that has closed 20 months later, without carrying any downside risk." The promoters will shortly issue a public notice in this regard and as committed in the delisting offer of December 2015, the additional payout will be made within two months thereafter.
