Snapping three sessions losing streak, shares of Religare Enterprises rallied over 8% in early trade on Friday, in an otherwise weak broader market. The NBFC stock saw surge in buying after the Burman family, which owns Dabur, acquired majority stake in the Delhi-based financial services firm. The Burman group’s shareholding in Religare Enterprises rises to 25.16% stake after acquiring an additional 0.07% equity via an open offer, which received muted response from investors.

Cheering the news, Religare Enterprises (REL) share price surged 8.5% to ₹242 during the session so far, after losing nearly 6% in the past three days. Early today, the smallcap stock opened 4.8% higher at ₹233.70. The counter touched its 52-week high of ₹319.90 on December 17, 2024, and a 52-week low of ₹201 on June 4, 2024.

The Burman family, which started acquiring stakes in the company in 2018, is the single largest shareholder in the company and holds stake through its four group entities - M.B. Finmart Private Limited, Puran Associates Private Limited, VIC Enterprises Private Limited, and Milky Investment & Trading Company.   

Burman family’s open offer gets tepid response

The ₹2,116 crore open offer by the Burmans family for the acquisition of additional 26% stake in REL received muted response from shareholders.  As per the exchange data, against 26% stake on offer, at a floor price of ₹235 apiece, only 0.07% equity was tendered.

In a BSE last evening, Religare Enterprises said that open offer by the Burman family for acquisition of up to 9,00,42,541 fully paid-up equity shares, representing 26% shares, completed on February 20. In the open offer, the Burman group entities - M.B. Finmart Private Limited, Puran Associates Private Limited, VIC Enterprises Private Limited, and Milky Investment & Trading Company - acquired 231,025 equity shares, representing 0.07%, of the outstanding paid up share capital.

“The shareholding of the acquirer posts the open offer and acquisition is 83,201,819 equity shares representing 25.16% of the outstanding paid-up share capital of the target company as at the date,” the filing noted.

REL appoints Praveen Kumar Tripathi as chairperson

Earlier this month, REL, at its meeting held on February 11, appointed Praveen Kumar Tripathi as the chairperson of the company after the exit of Saluja as she did not get approval from shareholders for her re-appointment. Tripathi, a non-executive independent director, will be the chairperson of the company until June 30, 2025. As per the resolution passed at the meeting, the directors of the company will be appointed as the chairperson of the company on a rotational basis to hold office for a calendar quarter and the first chairperson will be Praveen Kumar Tripathi and will hold office until June 30, 2025.

In September last year, the Burman group-owned entities proposed an open offer to acquire additional 26% equity stake in the diversified financial services group at a floor price of ₹235 per share, amounting to ₹2,116 crore, payable in cash. All four entities had jointly announced an open offer to acquire up to 90,042,541 fully paid-up equity shares of the Mumbai-based firm. This was largely aimed at getting majority control in the company.

However, the Religare management raised concerns regarding the offer, questioning the "fit and proper" credentials of the Burman family and criticised the offer price, which was significantly lower than then current market price. Burmans, on the other hand, alleged that the Religare management was obstructing it from acquiring more stakes. 

The legal battle reached various courts and at the end the RBI and the SEBI approved the offer in December last year, which was launched by the Burman family on January 27.

The high-stakes battle for the control of Religare took another twist with Florida-based businessman Danny Gaekwad getting an extension from the Supreme Court to deposit ₹600 crore for his competing offer to acquire a stake in the company. On February 7, the SC had extended by 5 days the time for Burman family's open offer for an additional stake in REL. However, Gaekwad failed to deposit the funds by February 13, citing paucity of time. As a result, the Burmans finally win the battle.

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