Patanjali Foods on Monday said Rajiv Jain-led investment management firm GQG Partners has acquired a 5.96% stake in the company through the offer-for-sale (OFS), which concluded on Friday.
In the share sale, GQG, best known for investing in Adani Group companies, acquired around 21.5 million shares of Patanjali Foods. The floor price was kept at Rs 1,000 per share, but allotment to non-retail investors was done at Rs 1,103.80 per share. GQG’s investment would, therefore, be worth around Rs 2,400 crore, analysts tracking the company said.
Following the announcement, shares of Patanjali Foods shot up 2.81% to touch an intraday high of Rs 1,259.40 on the BSE on Monday, before closing at Rs 1,254.70, a gain of 2.43% over the previous trading session.
Jain has been raising his bets in Indian firms over the last few months. In the Adani Group alone, GQG Partners’ total investment has gone up to Rs 26,445 crore in the aftermath of the Hindenburg controversy, data from BSE show.
In addition, the investment firm has a significant exposure to HDFC (now merged with HDFC Bank), ITC, ICICI Bank, SBI, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, RIL, Cipla, NTPC, JSW Steel, Coal India, L&T, and Ambuja Cements, among others.
On 12 July, Patanjali Foods said its primary promoter Patanjali Ayurved was planning to divest around 7% of its stake for Rs 2,533.9 crore via an OFS. This was to meet the minimum public shareholding requirements.
The sale of shares, data from the BSE showed, was subscribed more than two times at the end of the two-day offer on Friday. While the non-retail portion was subscribed more than two times, the retail category received over three times subscription.