Deutsche Post DHL has raised nearly €39 million from Friday’s heavily over-subscribed sale ofshares in listed Indian express company Blue Dart, it emerged today.
The German company, which held 81.03% of Blue Dart Express through its subsidiary DHL Express(Singapore) Pte Ltd, reduced its holding to 75% to meet new rules governing companies listed on theBombay Stock Exchange.
A total of 1.43 million shares, representing 6.03% of Blue Dart shares, were sold at an averageprice of Rs 1,833 per share. The total value of the sale was Rs 2,791 million (€38.9 million), DHLExpress (Singapore) Ptd Ltd stated in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange today.
The sale was over-subscribed by nearly four times, according to media reports from India. Thefloor (minimum) price had been set at Rs 1,720 per share.
Following the transaction, the Blue Dart share price rose slightly to Rs 2,005 yesterday butdropped back to Rs 1,990 today, leaving the Indian company’s full market capitalisation at Rs47,210 million and the 25% free float value at Rs 7,080 million.
Deutsche Post DHL was forced to change its holding in Blue Dart Express by changes to foreignownership laws in India. Under the incoming stock exchange regulations, companies listed on theBombay Stock Exchange must ensure they have at least 25% of their shares in public ownership by 3June 2013, thus limiting majority ownership to 75%, or must be fully taken over.
In September, DHL Express, which has owned 81% of Blue Dart for several years, announced itwould reduce its stake to 75% rather than buying out minority shareholders to gain full ownership.Deutsche Post DHL stressed at the time that the share sale was purely a legally required financialmove and would not impact on the close cooperation between DHL Express and Blue Dart.
