Ricoh's attempt to delist Indian branch for automation software products and services fails, as number of shares tendered was insufficient; the company made a similar attempt in Nov. 2012, also unsuccessful

Aimee Bellah

June 17, 2014 (VCCircle (India)) – This is the second time when Ricoh failed to delist from India bourses after its first attempt in November 2012.

Japanese multinational Ricoh's offer to delist its Delhi-based office automation products and services arm Ricoh India Pvt Ltd from Indian bourses has failed, as the number of offer shares tendered was less than the minimum number of offer shares required to be accepted by the promoters, according to a stock disclosure.

The acquirer had sought to buy back up to 10.4 million equity shares, representing 26.4 per cent of the equity capital of the company, which it doesn't own, at a floor price of Rs 200 per share from the public shareholders.

However, the Japanese parent could manage to garner bids for 6.94 million equity shares, of which just 4.18 million equity shares were tendered at or below the discovered price of Rs 200 per share. It needed 6.56 million shares to be tendered at or below the floor price, which would have taken its holding to over 90 per cent required to see through the delisting.

Accordingly, the delisting offer is deemed to have failed and hence Ricoh will not acquire any shares tendered in the offer and the equity shares of Ricoh India will continue to remain listed in India.

ICICI Securities Limited was the manager for the delisting offer.

This is the second time when Ricoh failed to delist from India bourses after its first failed attempt in November 2012. Previously, the promoters could manage to garner bids for only around 4 million equity shares, which were around 62 per cent of the required quantity to successfully delist the shares.

Shares of the company tanked 20 per cent to hit the lower circuit filter for the day at Rs 172.80 a unit on the BSE in mid-day trading in a flat Mumbai market on Tuesday.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)

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