Clearing the air on bourses freezing promoter shares in Patanjali Foods CEO Sanjeev Asthana, said that the promoters’ shares were locked by the exchanges till April 2023. Adding that Patanjali Foods is communicating with SEBI, Asthana said that the promoters are actively working to further dilute up to six per cent stake and are in continuous talks with investors.
“We are actively working on further dilution up to six per cent. There is a lot of reasonable response from the investors, but the market has to be conducive. Markets have to support this dilution, we are pretty confident that this should happen in the next couple of months,” he told ET NOW’s Nikunj Dalmia. It may be noted that the promoters and promoter group hold 80.82 per cent shares in Patanjali Foods Limited, previously known as Ruchi Soya.
Saying that the company has not appointed investment bankers in a bid to raise fresh capital, Asthana said that the management is in talks with new investors and about the mode of dilution.
Promoters committed to increasing public shareholding
Patanjali Foods informed the exchanges the promoters are committed to increasing public shareholding to the mandatory public shareholding requirement of 25 per cent. “We have received a communication from our promoters that they are fully committed to the mandatory compliance of achieving minimum public shareholding and they have been discussing various modes best suited for increasing the public shareholding. They are confident of achieving mandatory MPS within next few months,” Patanjali Foods, previously known as Ruchi Soya, said in a filing.
Earlier, the exchanges had put a freeze on 292.58 million shares of the promoters of Patanjali Foods Limited for not meeting the shareholding norm. As per SEBI norms, public shareholders must hold a minimum of 25% stake. According to the shareholding pattern of the company on NSE, the public hold only 19.18 per cent shares of Patanjali Foods, six per cent below the SEBI requirement.
