Nagarjuna Agrichem issues bonus shares

Complying with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) norms on minimum public shareholding, Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Agrichem Limited has reduced the promoter holding by issuing bonus shares at 3:14 ratio exclusively to the public shareholders.

Nagarjuna Agrichem is the only entity from Andhra Pradesh to figure in the list of 105 companies for not complying with the minimum public shareholding norm. On Thursday, the company management clarified that its name figured only because of the pending confirmation for the bonus issue by the BSE.

"We have already complied with the public shareholding norm by initiating the process as early as on April 23, 2013, through a board decision to issue bonus shares to the public shareholders," said Satish Kumar Subudhi, company secretary, Nagarjuna Agrichem. The company had completed the process of allotment of these bonus shares on June 3, according to him.

Post the issue of bonus shares, promoters' holding has come down to 74.813 per cent from 78.29 per cent. Instead of offloading the shares held in excess of the Sebi norms, the management has raised the paid up capital to Rs 15.60 crore from the earlier Rs 14.90 crore to facilitate the issue of 6.9 million bonus shares, according to the official.

Public shareholding in the company now stands at 25.18 per cent as compared with 21.71 per cent prior to the issue of fresh shares. The company reported a net loss of Rs 12.66 crore for the year ended March, 2013.