The second largest private sector shipbuilding company in India, Bharati Shipyard Limited (BSL) had acquired almost 15 percent of stake in Great Offshore Limited (GOL), a leading player in the Indian offshore oilfield services industry. BSL acquired the share by invoking a share pledge and after that it made a public offer to acquire further 20 percent stake in GOL.
After this offer, ABG Shipyard Limited (ABG), BSL’s rival, made a counter-offer. Both of the companies made several counter-offers by August 2009, and the latest offer by ABG was priced 51 percent higher than the first offer made by BSL.
Along with this, both BSL and ABG had built up their equity holdings in GOL by investing significantly. Now BSL had to decide the limit of offer that it could make to acquire the GOL. The author, Subhash Jha, has the affiliation with Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur.