DHL fixes Blue Dart share sale price at Rs 1,720 apiece

DHL Express (Singapore) has fixed a price of Rs 1,720 per share, a discount of 16 percent to the today's closing price, for sale of 6.03 percent stake in its subsidiary Blue Dart Express.

The stake sale tomorrow could fetch the company at least Rs 246.29 crore. "With reference to earlier announcement regarding offer for sale of shares by promoter, DHL Express (Singapore) has now informed BSE that floor price for the sale of shares shall be Rs 1,720 per equity share," it said in a filing to the BSE today.

DHL Express (Singapore), which holds 81.03 percent stake in Blue Dart Express as on end of September, would sell 14.32 lakh shares in the company tomorrow.

In a notice of offer for sale last evening, Blue Dart had said the sale of 14,31,937 shares would take place on separate windows of both BSE and NSE on November 23. The sale process will start at 0915 hrs and close on the same day at 1530 hrs.

Following the announcement of the offer for sale, Blue Dart's shares hit the upper circuit limit on the BSE today to settle at Rs 2,056.56 apiece, up 20 percent over the previous closing.

"The seller shall declare the floor price for the sale on November 22 after closure of the trading hours of the stock exchanges, but not later than 5 pm. Orders or bids below the floor price shall not be accepted and will not be considered for allocation," it had said.

Regulator Sebi has earlier this year made it mandatory for the promoters of listed companies to prune their holding to a maximum of 75 percent by June next year so that a minimum 25 percent public shareholding can be maintained in listed private companies.

Blue Dart said a minimum of 25 percent of the offer will be reserved for allocation to insurance companies and mutual funds. "No single bidder other than mutual funds and insurance companies shall be allocated more than 25 percent of the size of the sale," the document had said. Citigroup Global Markets India has been appointed as the seller's broker.