Shares of Patanjali Foods are down 22.4% year to date. (File)
Bangalore:
Shares of India’s Patanjali Foods Ltd fell 5% on Thursday, a day after the edible oil maker said the country’s stock exchanges had frozen promoters’ shares as they still hold about 80% stake in the company.
India’s markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), fixes the minimum government shareholding in listed companies at 25%.
The stock is down 22.4% year-to-date.
Patanjali said in a stock filing on Wednesday that it has received notices of suspension from both the BSE, formerly known as the Bombay Stock Exchange, and the National Stock Exchange.
About 292.6 million shares will be affected by the announcement, the company said.
The deadline for minimum public turnover norms has passed until the end of January 2023 due to the three-year period after the completion of the company’s relisting.
However, the company said on Wednesday that the actions of the stock exchanges had no impact on its financial position.
The promoters are confident of getting the minimum government shareholding in the next few months, he said, adding that the equity shares of the promoters are locked up till April 2023 as per SEBI norms and none of the shares are pledged.
Patanjali Ayurved, the company’s parent firm, acquired Ruchi Soya Industries in 2019 and renamed it Patanjali Foods in 2022.
This is not the first time that Patanjali Foods has run into regulatory crossroads.
In September 2021, SEBI issued a warning to the company after its founder, noted yoga guru Baba Ramdev, tried to get his followers to invest in the sale of shares of Ruchi Soya during its relisting in January 2020 through a viral sermon.
In March 2022, SEBI asked Patanjali to allow it to withdraw its offer to sell 43 billion rupees ($519.84 million) worth of shares to retail investors.
The regulator’s move follows instances of spam messages being sent to users of Patanjali Ayurved to invest in the sale of shares of Ruchi Soya.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published on a syndicated channel.)
