E*TRADE Financial Corp makes open offer for IL

Mumbai, Oct 10 (UNI) E*TRADE financial corporation (NYSE:ET), through its indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary E*TRADE Mauritius limited, today announced that it was making an open offer for shares of IL&FS Investsmart Ltd (Investsmart).

The offer to Investsmart shareholders includes the acquisition of up to 13,864,082 equity shares of Rs 10 each, representing 20 per cent of the Emerging Voting Capital per equity share. The Offer Price of Rs 210 per equity share will be offered by E*TRADE Mauritius to the shareholders of Investsmart, said an E*TRADE release.

However, the offer is subject to the receipt of approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIBP) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

The Offer will result in a change of control of Investsmart and is not subject to any minimum level of acceptance by the shareholders of Investsmart. It follows the proposed conversion of E*TRADE Mauritius' Investsmart GDRs into fully paid equity shares, which will increase the company's fully paid up voting capital of Investsmart to 27.87 percent and requires the company make an offer to the equity shareholders of Investsmart.

The two-way global relationship will provide Indian investors access to international markets and global customers with greater market opportunities to invest in India. Following the offer, E*TRADE financial resources will be deployed in India, allowing Investsmart to better leverage E*TRADE financial's technology and industry expertise to achieve the efficiency and growth inherent in a global trading and investing platform.

UNI SN KU SKB2002