The promoter group of Prime Focus Ltd on Thursday said that they have entered into an agreement with Credit Suisse to acquire a 33.12% stake in the company at a price of Rs44.15 per share aggregating to Rs463 crore.
This transaction will in turn trigger an open offer by the promoters to acquire another 26% stake in the company from public shareholders at the same price of Rs44.15 apiece.
On Thursday, shares of Prime Focus closed trading at Rs51.4 apiece, up 0.78% on the BSE.
“The Acquirer has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement (“SPA”) with the IDBI Trusteeship Services Limited acting as a seller (in its capacity as the debenture trustee for the benefit of Credit Suisse AG, Singapore Branch) (“seller”), on December 24, 2020, pursuant to which the Acquirer has agreed to acquire an aggregate of 10,49,39,361 equity shares representing 33.12% of the Expanded Voting Share Capital of the Target Company,” the company said in a stock exchange filing.
The promoters will have to spend Rs363.6 crore for the open offer to acquire the entire 26% stake.
These shares that are being acquired by the promoters from Credit Suisse were previously held by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Mediaworks Financial Services Pvt Ltd. The shares were pledged to Credit Suisse.
“The aforesaid Equity Shares are held by the Seller post invocation of a pledge which was created by Reliance Mediaworks Financial Services Private Limited. The Seller also holds a pledge (created by Reliance Mediaworks Financial Services Private Limited) over 31,639,695 Equity Shares, representing 9.99% of the Expanded Voting Share Capital. Such 31,639,695 Equity Shares form part of the Sale Shares proposed to be sold by the Seller to the Acquirer, under the SPA, and as per the terms of the SPA, the Seller shall exercise its rights as a pledgee to enable the sale of such Equity Shares to the Acquirer,” the stock exchange filing said.
Prime Focus is an integrated media services company that provides end-to-end creative services (stereo 3D conversion and animation), technology products and services (Media ERP Suite and Cloud-enabled media services), production services (equipment rental) and post-production services (Digital Intermediate and picture post) to the media and entertainment industry.
