US firm GQG Partners buys 5.96% stake in Patanjali Foods via OFS route

US-based investment firm GQG Partners has bought a 5.96 percent stake in edible oil company Patanjali Foods, which is being promoted by Patanjali Ayurveda and led by Baba Ramdev.

GQG Partners has purchased 2,15,64,517 shares of Patanjali Foods through an Offer For Sale (OFS) route, according to a regulatory filing. This translates to a 5.96 per cent stake in Patanjali Foods.

The share price of Patanjali Foods closed at Rs 1,332.75 per share on Wednesday, up 4.64 per cent from Tuesday.

The market capitalization of Patanjali Foods is Rs.48,245 crore. At current valuation, GQG Partners stake in Patanjali Foods is approximately Rs 2,900 crores.

Last week, Patanjali Foods announced that its promoter Patanjali Ayurved will sell up to Rs 2.53 crore shares of the company through OFS in a bid to increase the public offering. The minimum price has been kept at Rs 1,000.

A two-day sale (OFS) offer was launched on 13-14 July by the promoting entity Patanjali Ayurved to reduce its total stake in Patanjali Foods by approximately 7 per cent to meet the minimum public shareholding requirement.

Patanjali Ayurved’s sale of shares of Patanjali Foods was more than doubled at the end of the two-day offer on Friday.

The offer received bids for 76,34,567 shares from retail investors for the 25,33,964 shares offered, which translates to three times oversubscription on Friday.

On Thursday, ₹2.28 crore was offered to non-retail investors and cumulative bids of more than ₹4.56 crore shares were received, reflecting weak subscriptions.

After OFS, Patanjali Foods Ltd said on Saturday that its promoters’ contribution has fallen to 73.82 percent from 80.82 percent earlier.

In June, GQG Partners and other foreign investors purchased nearly US$1 billion additional stakes in Adani Group companies.

The bankrupt Ruchi Soya Industries was taken over by Patanjali Group and later renamed the company as Patanjali Foods.

Earlier, Patanjali Foods launched a Follow-up Public Offering (FPO) of Rs 4,300 crore to reduce the share of the promoters and increase the public shareholding. The total income of Patanjali Foods rose to Rs. 31,821.45 crore in the last financial year as against Rs. 24,284.38 crore in 2021-2022.

Out of total revenue, the turnover of the edible oil segment increased to Rs. 25,253.33 crore in the last financial year from Rs. 22,468.64 crore in the previous year.

Revenue from the food and FMCG segment quadrupled to Rs.6,218.08 crore in the 2022-23 financial year from Rs.1,683.24 crore in the same period last year.