Bidding war for Great Offshore

A bidding war is building up as two Indian shipuilders battle for control of offshore services provider Great Offshore.

On June 3, Bharati Shipyard made a public offer of Rs. 344 per share to acquire up to 7,826,788 shares of Great Offshore (20 percent of the diluted share capital). Prior to the offer, it held 5,533,786 shares.

Today, rival ABG Shipyard ABG, which owns about 2.5 percent of Great Offshore, offered to pay 375 rupees a share for an additional 33.85 percent stake.

That drew a response from Bharati Managing Director P.C. Kapoor, who told reporters: "We will be making another revised offer, the timing will be a few days hence, and what the price will be I cannot say right now."