Sapphire Foods up 3% on heavy volumes, almost 11% equity changes hands

WWD Ruby intended to sell up to 31,77,127 equity shares representing 5 per cent of total equity of Sapphire Foods, in one or more tranches, by December 21, 2022.

Shares of Sapphire Foods India, a franchisee of Yum Brands in the Indian subcontinent, gained 3 per cent to Rs 1,407.40 on the BSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade after WWD Ruby offloaded over 3 million equity shares of the restaurants company via open market today.

Sapphire Foods in an exchange filing on Wednesday said that the company has received intimation letter from a shareholder viz., WWD Ruby Limited, in relation to proposed sale of equity shares of the company held by them.

WWD Ruby in its letter said they intend to sell up to 31,77,127 equity shares representing 5 per cent of total equity of Sapphire Foods, in one or more tranches, by December 21, 2022.

As on September 30, 2022, the foreign company held 6.21 million shares or 9.77 per cent stake in Sapphire Foods, the shareholding pattern data shows.

According to BSE data, at 09:15 am; around 181,835 shares and at 09:37 am; around 131,332 shares changed hands via block deals. The names of the buyers and sellers were not ascertained immediately.

At 10:38 am; Sapphire Foods traded 3 per cent higher at Rs 1,401.75, as compared to 0.44 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The stock hit an intra-day low of Rs 1,347.05 on the BSE. Around 7.2 million shares representing 11 per cent of total equity of the company had changed hands on the BSE. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 1,573 on October 6, 2022.

Sapphire Foods is a leading YUM franchisee operator in the Indian subcontinent with presence in India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. As of September 30, 2022, the company owned and operated 301 KFC and 249 Pizza Hut restaurants in India, 99 Pizza Hut and 7 Taco Bell restaurants in Sri Lanka and 1 KFC and Pizza Hut each in Maldives.