Patanjali Foods down 5% after stock exchanges freeze promoter shareholding

Shares of Patanjali Foods slipped 5 per cent to Rs 912.90 on the BSE in Thursday's intra-day trade after the stock exchanges froze promoter holding of the company after the failed to meet 25 per cent public shareholding within the given time frame.

At present, the promoter stake in Baba Ramdev-backed company is at 80.82 per cent. The company had to increase its public shareholding from 19.2 per cent to 25 per cent.

"The company had to increase its public shareholding from 19.18 per cent to 25 per cent, and while the management of the company was discussing various means and methods for increasing its public shareholding, in the meantime, the company received an email from the stock exchanges freezing the shareholding of the promoters and promoter group," Patanjali Foods said in a stock exchange notification.

The company said promoters' equity shares are already under lock-in as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) regulation till April 2023 (one year from date of listing i.e. April 08, 2023) and therefore, the company does not perceive any impact of this action by the Stock Exchanges. Further, it should be noted that the promoters' equity shares are not pledged, it added.

Patanjali Foods further said the Stock Exchanges action will not have any impact on its financial position as the company continued its journey of registering robust business, and financial performance.

The company has received a communication from the promoters that they are fully committed to the mandatory compliance of achieving minimum public shareholding and they have been discussing various modes best suited for increasing the public shareholding. They are confident of achieving mandatory MPS within next few months, it added.

At 10:19 AM, Patanjali Foods was quoting 4 per cent lower at Rs 919.90, as compared to 0.12 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. In the past three months, the stock has declined 25 per cent, as against 6 per cent fall in the benchmark index.

The company is required to either raise funds or promoters needs to sell 5 per cent stake to bring down promoters' shareholding to 75 per cent. With the submission of plan to bring down shareholding, the promoters shares would be unfreeze, ICICI Securities said in a note.