NRI businessman C Sivasankaran-promoted Siva Group seems to be cooking new plans for the edible oil sector. A slew of firms controlled by the group had hiked their combined stake in Madhya Pradesh?s integrated edible oil maker KS Oils to well over 8%. This comes close on the heels of the group increasing its stake in Ruchi Soya Industries, another edible oil maker, to 12%. After the fresh acquisition of shares, Siva Group?s stake has gone up to 8.17%, up from 5.72%. The stake hike had elevated the Siva Group as the single largest non-promoter share in KS Oils followed by private equity major Baring and NSR Direct. The markets had given a thumbs up to the latest move by Siva Group with the KS Oils stock zooming 11% to close at Rs 37.50, before hitting an intra-day high of Rs 42 on NSE on Monday. Market sources say that the Siva Group might have firmed up its plans to enter the booming branded edible oil business with its strategic investments in the two companies. An e-mail sent to the Siva Group by FE, however, did not evince any response. According to information available with FE, four companies belonging to the Siva Group had lapped up one crore equity shares of KS Oils from the open market last Friday. These companies are Shiva Trade Consultancy, Bagmar Finlease, Saravana Enterprises and Ratha Infrastructure.
According to the separate disclosures made by these companies, Baghmar Finlease had bought 21.74 lakh shares of KS Oils at a price of Rs 34.42 on Friday on the NSE, Ratha Infrastructure had bought another 20.79 lakh shares of the edible oil maker for Rs 32.85 per share in a separate deal and Siva Trade Consultancy Services bought an additional 44.46 lakh shares for Rs 36.39 per share. The remaining shares were reportedly mopped up Saravana Enterprises.
a partnership firm controlled by the group, sources said.
KS Oils is one of the leading integrated edible oil companies which claims to enjoy close to 11% market share in the segment. It owns brands like Kalash, Double Sher, and KS Gold among others. As of the quarter ending September this year, the promoters, the Garg family, holds 36.31% stake in the company. Other major non-promoter shareholders are Baring Pvt Equity, which holds 5.25%, and Nsr Direct PE, Mauritius, which holds 6.83% stake.
For the first half of the current fiscal ending September 30, KS Oils has clocked a net profit of Rs 101.62 crore over a turnover of Rs 2,060.71 crore.
The company has a paid up equity capital of Rs 40.90 crore and a basic earning per share of Rs 2.48 per share with a face value of Re 1.
