Yes, it is the shareholders, mainly the major ones, will make the decision in the event of a takeover attempt.
However, the takeovers can be in two ways; 1) Friendly takeover 2) Hostiel Takeover.
In the case of a takeover attempt (offer) a few things can happen, and the takeover attempt can turn to a hostile one from a friendly one.
Let's say Hess Corp offered $300m ($1 ps) to NSE tomorrow;
1) NSE management will discuss the offer internally and will make an anns to us. And they will make their recommendations to shareholders. They may say either one of the following;
A) "This is a fair value, we recommend shareholder to sell their shares at $1 to Hess Corp." B) "This is NOT a fair value, we recommend shareholder NOT to sell their shares at $1 to Hess Corp."
Then we will start to wait. Hess may do the things below;
1) Increase the offer to $1.20 or
2) Put a hostile bit on $1. Then you will see 300m share buy order on the buy side at $1. (Which would look very attractive to many holders)
So, some of the shareholder may sell it to $1 buy orders. Some may prefer to wait.
Btw, a counter offer may come from another company at a higher sp like $1.10 or $1.20.
If no other offer comes up, NSE holders will be anxious to sell their shares to $1.
Btw, the big shareholder may give the direction the to hostile bid takeover by selling their large stakes to Hess at $1. Therefore major shareholders will play the key role in a takeover attempt.
That top 20 you are looking at is the old one. It has changed since the latest 76m share placement in Dec. There are a few large holders.
But my main concern is someone has already built or is still building a large portfolio since we started to raise from 30c in Feb.2012 (not very long time). If they keep the portfolios smaller than 5% they don't have to anns it. Then just before the takeover you can see the consolidation of portfolios and building of significant shareholdings of like 10% or 20%. For example I remember how aggressively a large holder bought their portfolio around 35c even though the time was not right and sp came back lower than 30c after then.
I mean if a few portfolios would come together and would sell into to hostile bid, we would be finished then. Everyone would start to sell at $1.
I hope no one have had enough time to build dummy portfolios like that.
NSE Price at posting:
79.5¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held