Ruchi Soya: Ruchi Soya lodges FIR against unsolicited text messages asking for investment in FPO

Mumbai: Ruchi Soya Industries said it has filed a First Information Report (FIR) with a police station in Haridwar seeking a probe into the circulation of unsolicited text messages that prodded investors to put money in the company’s follow-on public offer (FPO). The company, owned by Patanjali Ayurved Group, said on Tuesday the messages were not sent by the company or any of its directors, promoters, promoter group, or group companies.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had directed Ruchi Soya to give investors who subscribed to the follow on public offer a window till Wednesday to withdraw their bids citing circulation of ‘unsolicited SMSes’. The issue closed on Monday.

The text message that was allegedly doing the rounds said that the issue was a “good investment opportunity” at a “discount of about 30%” to the market price. Ruchi Soya sold its shares in the FPO in the range of ₹615-650 apiece

Shares of Ruchi Soya, which dropped 6% on Monday to close at ₹815, jumped 16% to ₹945 on Tuesday.

Exchanges had not updated till Tuesday evening how many investors had pulled out of the Ruchi Soya FPO so far.

Early on Tuesday, the FPO subscription levels on the BSE showed the issue’s total subscription had shrunk to 2.58 times. The issue was subscribed 3.6 times at close on Monday. BSE, however, reverted to the Monday’s subscription closing levels.

“Since this was sudden change of process and system had to consider these changes, for few updates in Cumulative Bids Details section only BSE Bids data was shown instead of Cumulative Data of both the Exchanges,” said BSE on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Ruchi Soya has postponed its board meeting to determine the issue price and anchor investor issue price for its follow-on public offer (FPO) from March 29 to March 31.