Venkat transfers promoters' equity to father, to set up a family trust at Suven

To create family trust to take care of promoter group's holding in Suven Life Sciences

Suven Life Sciences Limited chairman and chief executive officer Venkat Jasti, along with his family members, has transferred the entire 59.44 per cent equity held by the promoter group to his father Subba Rao Jasti, according to a disclosure filed with both the stock exchanges on Friday.  

The move is a first step towards the creation of a family trust that would take care of the promoter group’s holding in the company as was done by other Hyderabad-based companies as a part of the succession plan.  When contacted, Venkat Jasti said they expected the process to be completed by March next year.

The entire volume of 75.65 million share of face value of Re 1 each has been acquired by Subba Rao, also a member of the promoter group, by way of gift, the company said in its filing. Prior to the acquisition Rao, held just 7,576 shares ( 0.001 per cent of the total equity).

Venkat, a post graduate in pharmacy from St John University, New York, specialising in industrial pharmacy, started Suven in 1989 after working for a couple of American drug companies in the US. The company is into contract manufacturing as well as research and development of new chemical entities (NCEs).

In the first half of the current financial year, the company has reported a net profit of Rs 59.6 crore on revenues of Rs 283.9 crore. The company went public in 1995.

Prior to the transfer of shares, Venkat held 18.07 per cent of shares followed by his wife Sudharani Jasti with 16.50 per cent of shares, while their three children held 8.29 per cent of share holding each.

The company has recently raised Rs 200 crore through qualified institutional placement (QIP)  by allotting a little over 10 million shares at a premium of Rs 190.32 per share. On Friday, Suven’s scrip closed at Rs 212.60, down Rs 5 over the previous day’s close on the BSE.