Fooled by Infomedia India!

In the first week of July, I saw a notification on the BSE which said something like this:

• Infomedia India Ltd has informed BSE that the Hon'ble High Court of Judicature at Bombay has approved the Scheme of Arrangement between the Company and the equity shareholders of the Company u/s 391 read with sections 100 to 103 of the Companies Act 1956 filed by the Company for purchase and consequent cancellation of its equity shares on June 16, 2006.

The notification meant that the Scheme of Arrangement would go through. The salient features of the SoA were that the company would buy-back its shares representing 14% of its paid-up capital. The buy-back will happen at a price of Rs.245 per share and will be across-the-board. However, there was one thing about the buy-back that struck me - shareowners holding less than 50 shares will have the option to tender their entire holding at Rs.245 per share, irrespective of the 14% ceiling announced by the company. CMP at the time when I came to know about this was Rs.172 per share. This meant that I could buy say 49 shares of Infomedia India and tender the same to the company at Rs.245 for a "risk-free" profit of 42.4%.

The company announced the record date for the event on 26-July-06. Everything seemed fine till then as many of my close friends and I bought 49 shares each in our accounts. We were quite happy to get this "free lunch". But that was not to be.....

The company revised its announcement on 27-July-06 and came up with a shocking modification to the SoA. As per the new SoA -

• The Shareholders holding 50 (fifty) Equity Shares or less per ledger folio in physical form and / or per Client ID in dematerialized form on June 16, 2006, shall have an option of tendering their entire Equity Shares for purchase by the Company and the Company shall purchase the Equity Shares tendered for a consideration of Rs 245/- per Equity Share.

This meant that all of my friends & I who bought 49 shares of Infomedia India during the second week of July cannot tender their entire holdings for Rs.245 or a 42.4 per cent "risk-free" profit. :-(

In the end we all exited the counter at cost (just about recovering brokerages paid, thankfully!) I think this was a case of sheer bad luck.....since the "risk-free" continues to rest with those pple who bought the shares prior to 16-June-2006. Plain simple bad luck, I think.