HUL forms committee to advise shareholders on open offer

MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever's board has formed a committee of independent directors to provide recommendation to the shareholders on the $5.4-billion voluntary open offer by its parent Unilever Plc, the FMCG giant said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The committee would consist of all the five independent directors of HUL, namely S Ramadorai, RA Mashelkar, OP Bhatt, Sanjiv Misra and Aditya Narayan, who will chair the committee.

On Tuesday, Anglo-Dutch company Unilever offered to buy over 487 million HUL shares for 600 each in a public offer to raise its holding in the Indian firm to 75% from 52.48%, spending $5.4 billion (over 29,000 crore), making it the largest deal in India's consumer goods sector.

However, several investors are iffy about tendering their shares as they expect the price to go higher. The offer represented a 20.6% premium over Monday's closing share price and a 26% premium to its one-month average price, but the news sent shares surging.