Burman family acquires control, becomes promoter of Religare Enterprises

The Burman Group will work with Religare Enterprises' leadership and board to reinforce its strategic direction and enhance long-term value creation

The Burman family today acquired control of Delhi based financial services firm, Religare Enterprises and were designated as its promoters after almost 18 month of a take over battle. "We are grateful to our regulators, shareholders and other stakeholders for their trust and confidence," the Burman family said in a statement.

  "Our immediate priority is to instil stability, strengthen governance, and drive sustainable growth at the company. Governance, trust, and integrity will remain at the core of our vision as we steer REL towards a future defined by resilience and stakeholder value maximization," the statement quoting Burman group's spokesperson said.

 

  The Burman Group will work with REL’s leadership and board to reinforce its strategic direction and enhance long-term value creation. "We have always invested in businesses with strong fundamentals and high growth potential, and we will apply the same disciplined approach to REL with the highest levels of governance, this was the intent with which we launched our open offer for control and we remain committed to that," a spokesperson of the Burman Group said. The family acquired around 25.2 per cent stake in Religare. It received tepid response in the open offer. 

  The takeover battle for Religare began in September 2023 when the Burmans of Dabur group, having reached a 25 percent stake in the company, made an open offer to acquire an additional 26 percent. But the senior management, led by chairperson Rashmi Saluja, opposed the offer, contending that the price of Rs 235 per share undervalued the company. In a communication to the regulators, the then board also raised questions whether the Burmans meet the "fit and proper" criteria of the regulators. The Burman family said they are successfully operating insurance firms and a NBFC and hence meet all the criteria.

  The matter landed in various courts including the Securities Appellant Tribunal and after the regulators including the RBI and the SEBI approved the offer in December last year, the Burmans launched the offer on January 27th. After the offer was launched, Gaekwad entered the fray with a counter offer. After the Sebi returned the offer Gaekwad moved the Supreme Court which on February 7th asked it to deposited Rs 600 crore by February 13th with the regulator to fund the counter offer. Meanwhile Saluja was ousted from the company by the shareholders. 

Gaekwad later failed to deposit the funds citing paucity of time. With this, the Burmans finally win the battle.