Shares of Adani Wilmar plunged nearly 5 per cent in morning trade on Wednesday amid reports that Adani Group’s flagship Adani Enterprises is exploring the possibility of selling its stake in its Mumbai-listed consumer-staple joint venture with Wilmar International Ltd, freeing up capital for their core business.
The group is considering a potential sale of its 44 per cent stake in Adani Wilmar for a few months. Chairman Gautam Adani and family are expected to retain a minority stake in a personal capacity following the sale, reported Bloomberg.
Adani’s stake is worth around Rs 22,000 crore at the current share price. The discussions are still at an early stage, and if the stake sale is finalised, Adani may decide to retain a minority stake in the company.
On the BSE, the Adani Wilmar stock fell 4.84 per cent to hit a low of Rs 374. At 11:50 AM, the stock was trading 14.55 points or 3.70 per cent at Rs 378.50 on the BSE.
Shares of Adani Wilmar have fallen around 36 per cent this year, valuing the company at around $6.2 billion. The stock has fallen over 13 per cent in the past six months.
Last week, Adani Wilmar reported a loss of Rs 79 crore in the April-June quarter due to a steep decline in edible oil prices. The consolidated revenue dropped 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 12,928 crore. The EBITDA slipped 71 per cent to Rs 130 crore. The margins were hurt by high-cost inventory in a falling edible oil price environment and disaligned hedges compared to sport prices of physical commodities.
Recently, Nuvama Institutional Equities lowered the stock’s price target to Rs 600 from Rs 625 earlier, citing slippage in edible oil prices results weak in April-June quarter performance.
