Ruchi Soya Industries have rescheduled its board meeting to March 31 to determine the follow-on public offer (FPO) issue price, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
The board was scheduled to meet today, however, the FPO bids withdrawal process has led to a delay.
"RUCHI SOYA INDUSTRIES LTD.has informed BSE that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company is scheduled on 31/03/2022 ,inter alia, to consider and approve Ruchi Soya Industries Limited had inform the exchange that the aforesaid board meeting proposed to be held on March 29, 2022 has been rescheduled and now it will be held on March 31, 2022 for the purposes of determining the Issue Price and the Anchor Investor Issue Price," the company said in a stock exchange filing.
Shares of Ruchi Soya rose 20 per cent to Rs 978 apiece early on Tuesday' on the BSE, but pared gains later to settle at Rs 938, after the company clarified that the SMSes pertaining to investments in its FPO have not been issued by the company or its promoters.
The follow-on public offer of Ruchi Soya was subscribed 3.6 times as the FPO garnered bids for 17.60 crore equity shares against the size of 4.89 crore equity shares on the final day of bidding, March 28.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had directed Ruchi Soya Industries to offer an option to investors to withdraw their bids in the company’s Rs 4,300 crore follow-on public offering (FPO) from March 28 to March 30, 2022.
Sebi took the decision after it came to its notice that unsolicited SMSs were being circulated about this FPO offer by bad actors. While there was nothing bad or wrongdoing about the FPO offer, it was the manner of "making investors aware of it" that led to it taking this action.
The management of Ruchi Soya Limited has issued a clarification saying they have not issued any such statement and have, in fact, filed a First Information Report (FIR) with a police station in Haridwar in view of the matter.
"Great news for all the beloved members of Patanjali parivar. A good investment opportunity in the Patanjali Group. The Patanjali Group company, Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd, has opened the Follow-On Public Offer (FPO) for retail investors. The issue closes on March 28, 2022. This is available in the price band of 615–650 rupees per share, i.e., a discount of about 30% to the market price, "the unsolicited message read, as per various media sources.
Ruchi Soya said in a public notice: "We understand that there are SMS/messages in circulation on social media, speculating about investment in our company’s issue and about equity shares of our company being available at a discount to market price ("Message"). We wish to bring to the attention of the investors that this message has not been issued by the company or any of our Directors, Promoters, Promoter Groups or Group Companies. A first information report bearing No. 0188 dated March 27, 2022 ("FIR") has been logged by our company with a police station at Haridwar to take up an investigation in respect to the circulation of the message, under Section 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
