Piramal Enterprises slumps 17% post announcement of capital-raising plan

Piramal Enterprises tanked 17.3 per cent to Rs 1,425.2 per share in the afternoon deals on the BSE on Friday after the company, at its board meeting, approved preferential Compulsory Convertible Debentures (CCD) allotment to Canadian institutional investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) for a price consideration of Rs 1,750 crore.

"The Board has approved fresh capital raise of Rs 5,400 crores through a Rights Issue and preferential allotment of CCDs. The Promoters will participate in and are committed to the success of the Rights Issue," it said in a BSE filing. READ FILING HERE

According to the company, the Rights Issue of Rs 3,650 crores, at Rs 1,300 per share, would give an opportunity to all its existing shareholders to participate in the capital raise plan. In addition, the company plans to raise Rs 1,750 crores through the preferential allotment of CCDs (at a conversion price of INR 1,510 per share) to CDPQ, it added. Till today, CDPQ geld 2.2 per cent stake in PEL.

"These funds will further strengthen our balance sheet, fortify & insulate us against any external shocks to the financial system in the future as well as enable us to tap organic and inorganic opportunities arising out of market consolidation across our Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals and Information Management businesses," Ajay Piramal, chairman, PEL said in a statement.

According to the proposal, the Rights Issue will be completed by February 2020, while the CCD will be issued in November 2019 at 9.28 per cent coupon rate, and will be valid for 18 months since allotment. The management hopes to reduce its debt-to-equity ratio to 1.7x from 2.0x post capital infusion. 

At 1:00 PM, the stock was trading 13.5 per cent lower at Rs 1489.9 apiece, as against a 0.63 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. A total of 4.5 million shares changed hands on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.

For the quarter ended September 2019, the company reported 15.33 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 554.08 crore. The total expenses also jumped 11.54 per cent YoY to Rs 2,934.29 crore.