Now, Ruchi Soya, a company that Patanjali acquired in December 2019 with just Rs 1,000 crore of own money is valued at Rs 31,190 crore
Nagpur: The way Patanjali acquired Ruchi Soya is an instructive example of nationalised banks, regulatory institutions and tribunals enabling massive wealth accumulation.
Gold Rate
19 April 2025
The moot question being asked is: Were the banks nudged by vested interests into handing a highly favourable deal to Patanjali at the cost of their investors and depositors, that is the common public? These are questions that there are no clear answers to.
The other side of this story concerns how Ruchi Soya’s stock has performed since it was re-listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange after Patanjali’s acquisition.
The sequence of events that led up to Ruchi Soya’s acquisition by Patanjali.
•Ruchi Soya, a listed company goes into insolvency. They owed Rs 12146 crore to PSU banks. SBI writes off Rs 933 crore and settles its dues of Rs 1,816 crore to Rs 883 crores. Other banks – Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India etc write off more than half their loans.
•Having reduced the liabilities to less than half, NCLT puts it up for sale. Only two bidders remained — Patanjali and Adani Wilmar. Adanis having bid initially, withdraw, leaving only Patanjali in the race.
•The bid of Patanjali was Rs. 4350 crore of which Rs 3250 crore would be funded by banks led by SBI, a bank that wrote off Rs 933 crore. The security for the loans was the same Ruchi Soya stock which was written down to Zero in the debt restructuring plan agreed by the banks.
•Now we have a situation where the banks that wrote off massive amounts are now funding another loan to Patanjali to acquire the same company where they wrote off debts .
•It doesn’t stop here. SEBI mandates a 25% public shareholding to be listed on the stock exchanges to ensure liquidity and avoid price manipulation. NCLT played along and ordered listing even though public shareholding was just 1%. SEBI played dead and did not challenge order.
•Price manipulation begins. There were no sellers in the market. Even the 1% was closely held. The stock zoomed from Rs3.50 to Rs 1053 in two years. Now, Ruchi Soya, a company that Patanjali acquired in December 2019 with just Rs 1,000 crore of own money is valued at Rs31,190 crore.
•Ruchi Soya, now owned 99.5% by Patanjali, is now coming with a public issue diluting just 20% and raising Rs 4300 crore. Remember, they bought 100% of the company at Rs 4350 crore. They will also repay all the debt with investor money.
•The bankers wrote off a few thousand crores. The initial shareholders were written off to zero. The bankers again funded the acquisition of the same company with securities of the same shares by Baba Ramdev. The small investors will again buy equity worth Rs 4300 crore.
•Baba Ramdev will own 80% of a Rs 31,000 crore company with no investment.
