Reliance Retail to acquire majority stake in Lotus Chocolate Company, to make open offer to buy up to 26% more

Lotus products are supplied to chocolate makers and chocolate users across the world

Reliance Industries' retail arm Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) on December 29 said that its wholly-owned FMCG subsidiary Reliance Consumer Products Limited (RCPL) will acquire a 51 percent majority stake in Lotus Chocolate Company Limited.

Additionally, RCPL will also make an open offer to buy up to 26 percent stake.

According to a company statement, RCPL will acquire 6.5 lakh equity shares of Lotus Chocolate Company at a price per share of Rs 113 aggregating to Rs 74 crore. Along with that, the RIL-subsidiary and certain promoter group entities of Lotus will subscribe to over five crore non-cumulative redeemable preference shares with a face value of Rs 10 each at par.

Furthermore, RCPL would make an open offer to the public shareholders of Lotus to acquire up to 33,38,673 equity shares of Lotus representing 26 percent of the equity share capital in accordance with the 'SEBI Takeover Regulations.'

"The parties have also executed a Shareholder’s agreement governing certain inter se rights and obligations," Reliance Retail said in the statement.

The company also noted that the capital infused by RCPL "will help drive the growth and expansion of Lotus into a comprehensive confectionery, cocoa, chocolate derivatives and related products manufacturer across industrial and consumer market spectrum backed by state-of-the-art manufacturing, best in-class processes & people."

Speaking on this development, Isha Ambani, Executive Director of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, said, “The investment in Lotus underlines our commitment to further boost indigenously developed daily use high-quality products, to serve a broad customer spectrum at affordable prices. We look forward to working with the highly experienced management team of Lotus as we further expand the business and drive its next growth phase.”

Abhijit Pai, Founder-Promoter of Lotus, said, “Our strategic partnership with Reliance, through this investment, will further enable this vision and accelerate Lotus’ transformation.”

Lotus is a business partner for the supply of cocoa and chocolate products, starting from the sourcing of cocoa beans to processing of cocoa beans and delivering chocolates. Its products are supplied to chocolate makers and chocolate users across the world, starting from local bakeries to multi-national companies.

Meanwhile, shares of Reliance Industries on December 29 closed almost flat at Rs 2,542.55 apiece on BSE.