Patanjali Foods shares hit a lower circuit, falling 5% to Rs 912.90 on Thursday after the NSE and BSE froze the equity shares held by promoters and promoter group of Patanjali Foods Ltd for failing to increase its public shareholding from 19.18% to 25% within the stipulated deadline.
“The company came up with Further Public Offering (FPO) in the month of March 2022 and issued 6,61,53,846 equity shares of Rs. 2/- each at a premium of Rs. 648/- per share aggregating to Rs. 4,300 Crores by which the public shareholding was increased to 19.18%. Accordingly, the company had to increase its public shareholding from 19.18 % to 25% and while management of the company was discussing various means and methods for increasing its public shareholding, in the meantime, the company received an e-mail from the stock exchanges freezing the shareholding of the Promoters and Promoter Group,” Patanjali Foods said in a stock exchange filing.
Patanjali Foods said that the action by stock exchanges will not affect the financial position of the company. “Stock Exchanges action will not have any impact on our financial position as we continue our journey of registering a robust business and financial performance. We have a strong management team in place to steer towards our long-term journey,” it added.
Patanjali Foods Ltd stock has fallen over 30% in the last 6 months and nearly 9% in the past week. The shares touched a 52-week high of Rs 1495.00 on 22 September 2022 and a 52-week low of Rs 706.00 on 6 April 2022. At the current market price of Rs 920.05, the market capitalisation of the company stands at Rs 33,305.34 crore.