Decks were cleared on Monday for the acquisition of liquor company Herbertsons Ltd by liquor baron Vijay Mallya as the Supreme Court put its seal of approval on the agreement between the UB Group and Chabbrias.
Market regulator SEBI -- the Securities and Exchange Board of India -- had also given its consent to the agreement between the parties but had put certain conditions.
The disputing parties consented to the conditions put forward by SEBI before a Bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde, Justice S B Sinha and Justice B N Srikrishna, which disposed of cross-petitions filed by the UB Group and Chhabrias on the acquisition issue.
SEBI said the agreement should not affect adjudication proceedings already initiated pursuant to its orders.
"The open offers already made by the two groups and in respect of which shares were tendered and payment was made should not be disturbed," it said adding "the investors whose shares were accepted in the open offer shall be paid the difference if the delisting price works out to be higher than the offer price."
Further, it said in case the offer made by the UB Group under the delisting guidelines fails, they would bring back the public shareholding in Herbertsons Ltd to the minimum limits specified under the listing agreement within a period of six months as required under the guidelines.
The application for settlement between the parties had given details of the agreement saying UB Group proposed to purchase a total of 46,72,791 shares, including the disputed shares) from Chhabria group for a total consideration of Rs 131.16 crore (Rs 1.311 billion) in full and final settlement of all claims and counter claims.
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