Lotus Chocolate hits 5% upper limit as Reliance eyes majority stake

Reliance Consumer Products will acquire 51 per cent controlling stake in Lotus for Rs 74 crore and also make an open offer to acquire additional 26 per cent stake.

Shares of Lotus Chocolate Company (Lotus) were frozen at the 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 122.95 on the BSE in Friday's intra-day trades after Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures made an open offer to acquire 3.34 million shares or 26 per cent stake in the company at price of Rs 115.50 per share.

Till 09:55 AM; around 3,553 equity shares changed hands and there were pending buy orders for 1.13 million shares on the BSE, the exchange data shows.

Lotus Chocolate Company has total 12.84 million outstanding shares as on September 30, 2022, shareholding pattern data shows. Currently, the stock is classified in the X category on the BSE. The X group consists of stocks which are only listed on BSE and are settled on a trade-to-trade basis.

RCPL will acquire 51 per cent controlling stake in Lotus for Rs 74 crore and also make an open offer to acquire upto 26 per cent additional state, Reliance Industries said in an exchange filing.

RCPL will acquire 6.55 million 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 per share aggregating to Rs 74 crore. READ MORE

Also, RCPL and certain promoter group entities of Lotus agreed to subscribe to 50.79 million non-cumulative redeemable preference shares of face value of Rs 10 each at par.

“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.