Reliance Consumer Products to acquire majority stake in Lotus Chocolate

It will also make an open offer to acquire up to 26 per cent stake in Lotus

Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures will acquire 51 per cent controlling stake in Lotus Chocolate Company (Lotus) for Rs 74 crore and also make an open offer to acquire upto 26 per cent, Reliance Industries said in an exchange filing

 RCPL will acquire 65,48,935 equity shares of Lotus representing 51 per cent of the paid-up equity share capital of Lotus from the current promoter and promoter group of Lotus at a price per share of Rs. 113 aggregating to Rs 74 crore.

Also, RCPL and certain promoter group entities of Lotus have also agreed to subscribe to 5,07,93,200 noncumulative redeemable preference shares of face value of Rs 10 each at par.

RCPL will make a public announcement to the public shareholders of Lotus to acquire up to 33,38,673 equity shares of Lotus representing 26.00 per cent of the equity share capital of Lotus in accordance with the SEBI Takeover Regulations.

“The capital infused by RCPL will help drive the growth and expansion of Lotus into a comprehensive confectionery, cocoa, chocolate derivatives and related products manufacturer across industrial and consumer market spectrum backed by state-of-the-art manufacturing, best in-class processes & people,” the filing said.

Isha Ambani, executive director of Reliance Retail Ventures said, “The investment in Lotus underlines our commitment to further boost indigenously developed daily use high quality products, to serve a broad customer spectrum at affordable prices. We look forward to working with the highly experienced management team of Lotus as we further expand the business and drive its next growth phase.”

Abhijit Pai, founder-promoter of Lotus, said, “Our strategic partnership with Reliance, through this investment, will further enable this vision and accelerate Lotus’ transformation.”