Patanjali Foods: Millions of shares of Baba Ramdev’s company Patanjali Foods freeze, know the reason.

New Delhi: There is no good news for the investors of Baba Ramdev’s company Patanjali Foods. Stock exchanges have frozen 29.258 crore shares of the promoter group entities of the company. The company failed to meet the norms of minimum public shareholding by the stipulated time. This is the reason why this action has been taken against him. The public shareholding in Patanjali Foods stood at 19.18 per cent at the end of December. According to SEBI rules, there should be at least 25 per cent public shareholding in any listed company. Patanjali Foods was earlier known as Ruchi Soya Industries. In December 2017, NCLT started insolvency proceedings against it. In July 2019, the tribunal approved the resolution plan of Patanjali Ayurveda. After the implementation of the resolution plan, the public shareholding in the company had come down to 1.1 per cent.

According to SEBI rules, if the public shareholding in a company is less than 25 per cent, it will have to increase it to this level within three years. Patanjali Foods had brought a follow on public offer in March 2022. 6.62 crore shares were issued through this. This increased the public shareholding in the company to 19.18 per cent. But after this the company has not taken any steps to take it to 25 per cent. The company said in a statement that shares of 21 promoter entities have been frozen. Patanjali Ayurveda has the largest stake of 39.4 per cent in the company. These shares will remain frozen until the company fulfills the SEBI norms. Shares of Patanjali Foods closed at Rs 964.40 on the NSE on Wednesday, up 1.3 per cent. It has declined 19 per cent so far this year.