Oracle makes open offer of Rs2,100 per share to i-flex shareholders

Mumbai: Enterprise software provider Oracle, which is seeking to increase its stake in Indian banking software firm i-flex Solutions, which it acquired last year, to 90 per cent, has made a final offer of Rs2,100 per share to shareholders.

Oracle had acquired 41-per cent stake in i-flex from Citigroup Venture Capital International at Rs800 a share in August 2005, and bought an additional 20 per cent at Rs882.62 per share later.

The company, which is seeking to raise its stake to 90 per cent in I-flex, launched another open offer to shareholders at Rs1,475 per share for the current month. It has now revised the offer to Rs2,100 a share (including interest) and said it would not sweeten it further.

"There will not be another open offer or a revision in the price. This is the last and the best price Oracle can offer," Doughlas A Kehring, senior vice president (corporate development), Oracle, said.

Once the offer is fully subscribed, Oracle would be shelling out a total of $1.3 billion for this round of buyout. This would take its total investment in i-flex to $2.3 billion, making it Oracle's largest direct foreign investment in a single company in India, Kehring said.

Oracle, he said, would not be de-listing of i-flex shares for at least the next five years unless they are trading at a significantly lower price