WFL receives open offer for share acquisition
An open offer has been made to the shareholders of Weizmann Forex Limited (WFL) for the acquisition of upto 27,99,350 fully paid-up equity shares with a face value of Rs. 10 each.
These shares represent 25.16 per cent of the fully diluted voting equity share capital of WFL. The open offer is made at a price of Rs. 528 per share. In the event the offer is fully accepted, the acquirer will have to pay a total consideration of approximately Rs. 147 crore.
The shares will be repurchased from the eligible shareholders, which include all the equity shareholders of WFL with the exception of the following – the shareholders that comprise the promoter/promoter group of WFL, the parties to the share repurchase agreement dated December 31, 2018, and any persons who are acting in concert or deemed to be acting in concert with the aforementioned persons.
The acquirers include EbixCash World Money Limited along with Ebix Asia Holdings Inc. (PAC 1) and Ebix, Inc. (PAC 2). The open offer is being made by means of a public announcement issued by Centrum Capital Limited, who is the manager to the offer.
Ebix has acquired 11 companies in the Indian financial space over the last 15 months, resulting in an overall investment of over US$ 500 million. Some of the companies it acquired include Miles, via.com, Centrum direct, Transcorp, ItzCash (now EbixCash), Paul Merchants, Indus Software, Mercury Travels, YouFirst Money Express, Smart Class educational and Wall Street Finance. It aspires to become a prominent player in India’s financial market.
EbixCash is evolving into a prominent financial exchange in India. It has established an Enterprise Financial Exchange portfolio that incorporates leadership in digital payments solutions, money transfer services (domestic & international), travel, insurance and corporate & incentive solutions. On the other hand, Ebix, Inc. is a US-based and NASDAQ listed company and is a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial and healthcare industries.
WFL is part of the Rs. 45 billion Weizmann Group, and is engaged in a diverse array of activities like textile manufacturing and exports, hydro and wind-power generation, foreign exchange transactions and inward money transfer.
On Tuesday, the shares of WFL opened at Rs. 500.00 per share and hit a high and low of Rs. 540.00 and Rs. 500.00 per share, respectively. At 10:39 am, the stock was trading at Rs. 526.00, up 7.04 per cent.