Mumbai: Venture capital investor SAIF Partners, the single largest public shareholder in Manpasand Beverages Ltd holding over 17% stake, has seen the value of its shareholding crash by over ₹450 crore, or $67 million, in just one week, as the beverage company’s stock went into a free fall, data from stock exchanges and Mint’s analysis show.
Manpasand Beverages’ stock collapsed on 28 May, following news that its auditors resigned abruptly ahead of the company’s quarterly result announcement slated for 30 May. The stock fell 20% on 28 May to hit the lower circuit.
In a stock exchange filing on 27 May, the company said that subsequent to resignation of Deloitte Haskins & Sells, the statutory auditors of the company, the board upon the recommendation of the audit committee, appointed M/s. Mehra Goel & Co., as statutory auditor with effect from 27 May.
Deloitte in a letter to the company said that without the significant information sought by it were provided, it would not be able to complete the statutory audit of the financial statements for 2017-18, according to Manpasand’s stock exchange filing.
The stock has fallen almost 53% in the last five trading days to close at ₹203.05 on Friday.
The crash meant that its single largest public shareholder and early backer SAIF Partners, which holds a 17.57% stake, has seen the value of its shareholding erode by over ₹450 crore or $67 million.
Before the stock began its slide, SAIF Partners’ stake in the company was worth ₹866.82 crore. As of closing of Friday, SAIF’s shares were worth ₹408.37 crore. Emails sent to SAIF Partners were not answered.
SAIF Partners first invested ₹50 crore in Manpasand in 2011. This was followed by ₹45 crore more in 2014, data from the company’s initial public offering (IPO) prospectus shows.
While SAIF has held on to its almost seven-year-old investment, it did sell a part of its shareholding in 2016, a year after the company went public.
In June 2016, SAIF Partners sold shares worth ₹67.2 crore through a block trade. Mint’s calculations show the part stake sale fetched SAIF a rupee return of approximately around 38%.
SAIF did not sell any shares in the IPO of Manpasand in June 2015, which saw the company raise ₹400 crore in fresh capital to expand business.
According to the company’s website, Manpasand’s beverage brands are present in over 20 states through more than 400,000 retailers, over 2,500 distributors and over 200 super stockists.
The firm’s popular beverage brands include Mango Sip and Fruits Up. The firm has seven operational manufacturing facilities, three at Vadodara (Gujarat), two at Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and one each in Dehradun (Uttaranchal) and Ambala (Haryana).