Oracle delays plan to buy i-flex stake, offers more
Oracle Corp, the world’s third-largest software maker, postponed its plan to begin buying shares of i-flex Solutions Ltd by almost a month and said that it would pay an additional sum as interest to compensate for the delay.
Oracle plans to begin buying an additional 20% voting control of Indian software-maker i-flex on December 4 for Rs 1,486.35 a share, including an interest payment due to the delay, DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd, an adviser for the transaction, said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday. It did not say why the offer, which expires on December 23, was delayed.
Oracle, which in September had said it would buy the shares between November 6 and November 25, on Wednesday also said the number of shares to be acquired would increase by 2,320. The larger number of shares and additional interest payment increases the purchase cost by less than 1%.
Redwood City, California-based Oracle had on August 14 made its initial offer to buy about 16.6 million shares for Rs 1,475 each, an 11.6% premium to the previous trading day’s closing price. Shares of Mumbai-based I-Flex have since gained 19%.
On Wednesday, the shares fell Rs 16.55 rupees, or 1%, to Rs 1,571 rupees at 2:57 pm local time on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Oracle has been purchasing I-Flex shares over the past year. On August 3, 2005, the company said it would buy a 41% stake from Citigroup Inc, and an additional 20% from smaller investors, for as much as $909 million. Oracle controlled almost 55% of i-flex by the end of September, according to Bloomberg data.
—Bloomberg
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