Mumbai, Oct. 23: DHL Express Singapore Pvt Ltd, the promoter of Blue Dart Express, has made an open offer to acquire close to 19 per cent of the latter’s equity at a floor price of Rs 510.94 per share. DHL now holds a little over 81 per cent stake in Blue Dart and it wants full ownership to integrate the company with its global operations.

If DHL’s offer is successful, the shares of Blue Dart will be delisted from the stock exchanges. While DHL is adopting the reverse book-building process to acquire the remaining shares, it said a maximum price of up to Rs 550 per share will be offered to shareholders. Last month, Blue Dart shareholders approved delisting of the shares from the BSE and the NSE.

However, the offer price comes at a discount to the current market price of Blue Dart. On the BSE today, the Blue Dart share closed at Rs 580, a gain of Rs 10.30 from its last close of Rs 569.70.

DHL feels obtaining full ownership of Blue Dart and integrating it with global operations will provide the parent company increased operational flexibility to support its business and cater to customer needs.

Blue Dart is an air express transportation and distribution company.

In November 2004, DHL said it was acquiring Blue Dart Express for Rs 730 crore. This came after DHL finalised agreements with the founding shareholders of Blue Dart and Schroder Capital Partners Ltd to acquire a majority stake in the company.

The agreement gave DHL a 68 per cent stake in Blue Dart for Rs 566.60 crore. The acquisition also required DHL to make a 20 per cent mandatory open offer to public shareholders.