Relisted in Jan, FMCG Major Ruchi Soya’s Stocks Soared 8,818 Percent in Just 103 Sessions

One of the biggest rallies in the share market by Ruchi Soya Industries, which Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Group acquired last year in a bankruptcy sale, has made the edible oil maker one of the top 60 companies on Dalal Street in terms of market capitalisation.

After getting relisted on January 27, the stock has soared 8,818 per cent to close at Rs 1,507 on Friday. This has raised the company’s market value to Rs 44,600 crore from Rs 500 crore in just 103 sessions. On Monday, the stock declined 5 per cent to Rs 1,431.95 post March quarter earnings.

In terms of market-cap, Ruchi Soya is now bigger than several biggies like Lupin, Torrent Pharma, Tata Steel, Ambuja Cements, HPCL, Grasim, PNB, Hindalco, Colgate-Palmolive and Havells India.

Ruchi Soya was taken over by Patanjali Ayurved on December 18 through the bankruptcy process; Ruchi Soya owed bankers close to Rs 9,300 crore and was dragged to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC.

Among the bidders for the company were Adani Wilmar and Patanjali Ayurved; the latter made the better offer, paying the banks around 48 percent of their debt. All told, Patanjali group infused Rs 4,300 crore into Ruchi Soya via equity, debt and preference shares. As part of restructuring the equity of the previous shareholders were written down to zero.

Currently 99.03 percent (about 29 crore shares) of Ruchi Soya are held by 15 Patanjali group entities. These shares are locked in for 3 years. The remaining 0.97 percent (about 28 lakh shares) is held by 82,000 public shareholders. Patanjali, under the NCLT resolution plan and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) rules has to increase the public shareholding to 10 percent in 18 months of its relisting. (The shares were listed after the NCLT process on January 27, 2020.) Further minimum public shareholding has to reach 25 percent in three years.