Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) has acquired majority stake, 51 per cent, in Mindtree Ltd on Wednesday. One of the largest engineering and construction companies in India, L&T has gained control of the Bengaluru-based information technology services (IT) firm Mindtree after weeks of tussle with the current management. 

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However, the open offer of Mindtree started on June 17 and is ending on June 28, under which shareholders can sell their shares to L&T for Rs 980 a share - precisely 73.9% of public shareholders have sold their shares to L&T at this price. According to NSE data, at 1230 hrs on Wednesday, 3,79,65,103 shares had been tendered so far. 

Earlier, L&T acquired 20.32% stake in Mindtree held by Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder V.G. Siddhartha and two of his firms in March this year. While over the next two months, the engineering mega firm bought 8.58% stake from other shareholders, making an overall stake of 28.90% in Mindtree. 

The board of Mindtree had agreed to three of L&T’s executives, including chief executive S.N. Subrahmanyan, chief financial officer R.S. Raman, and senior executive vice-president of L&T’s defence business Jayant Damodar Patil joining the board of the company. Mindtree has also agreed to L&T's proposal to have two independent directors, including former L&T executive Prasanna Rangacharya Mysore and former bureaucrat Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa.

Meanwhile, L&T has the option to buy another 15% shares as it plans to spend Rs 10,800 crore to own 66% stakes in Mindtree to make it the first hostile acquisition in the Indian IT industry till date. The shares of L&T jumped around 2 per cent while those of Mindtree fell 1.73% on NSE on Wednesday.