Through a transaction involving open market sale of shares, Bajaj Resources Ltd, the promoter of FMCG major Bajaj Consumer Care sold 22% equity in the company. The shares, numbering 3,22,65,100 were picked up by several buyers. Included among them are Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and Steinberg India Emerging Opportunities Fund. There were others as well. The price at which these shares were offloaded is ₹194.56 on an average. The value of the transaction is reported to be ₹628 crore.
Bajaj Consumer Care is in the FMCG business with many of its hair care products and brands quite popular. Brahmi Amla hair oil, Bajaj Almond Drops etc. are some of them. They are heavily advertised and available throughout the country.
Bajaj Resources Ltd is a kind of holding firm and as on September 30, held 59.9% equity in Bajaj Consumer Care. With this stake sale, its holding would drop to around 38%.
There are a couple of other promoter entities at Bajaj Consumer Care, besides Bajaj Resources Ltd. These are KNB Enterprises LLP and SKB Roop Commercial LLP. All three had made a similar equity dilution in March this year and at that time, there was 6.85% equity sold for a consideration of ₹320 crore.
It is not clear why the promoters would want to dilute their holdings in an ongoing business, unless they still maintain the majority shareholder status and have plans to invest the gains in other businesses. These have not been explained so far. These details of the share sales have come out of the stock exchanges where the companies are mandated to file their reports and change in the shareholding patterns.
The price of the Bajaj Consumer Care share at the Bombay Stock Exchange fell to 195.55, a fall of 14.77% from its previous close.