Shares of Bata India dropped nearly 4% in the intraday trade on Wednesday, extending losses for the seventh trading session. The share price of footwear major has fallen 7.65% in the last seven sessions after its promoter pared around 3% stake in the company through the open market last week. The stock traded 23% lower than its 52-week high of ₹2,261.65 touched on November 16, 2021. It hit a 52-week low of ₹1,540 on June 10, 2021. The stock has delivered 11.5% returns in the last one year, while it fell 7% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis.
On Wednesday, Bata India shares opened a tad higher at ₹1,786.30 against the previous closing price of ₹1,785.30 on the BSE. During the session, the stock declined as much as 3.8% to hit an intraday low of ₹1,717.55, before settling at ₹1,739, down 2.59%. In contrast, the BSE benchmark Sensex closed 214 points lower at 54,892 levels in highly volatile trade.
On June 1, Bata India’s promoter, Bata (BN) B.V., The Netherlands, divested 3.6 million shares or 2.8% shareholding in the footwear retailer for nearly ₹613 crore via open market transactions. The shares were sold at an average price of ₹1,860 apiece on the BSE.
“The sale (subject to settlement) of 3,600,000 shares by BATA (BN) BV, the parent company of Bata India Limited, is part of internal restructuring. The said stake constitutes only a marginal part (2.8%) of the promoter shareholding and will not result in any material reduction in the promoter holding from the company,” Bata India had said in a BSE filing on June 1.
The filing mentioned that BATA BN BV will continue to hold more than 50.1% stake in the Indian subsidiary after the transaction and pledges its complete commitment and trust towards the strategic direction under the current management. “Bata BN BV continues to be fully committed to Indian consumers and deeply values their patronage that has made Bata India Ltd, the largest footwear brand in India over the last 8 decades and is eager to see the business continuing to grow in India,” it added.
As per the shareholding pattern available on the BSE, BATA BN BV held 52.96% stake in the company at the end of March quarter of 2022. Among others, mutual funds owned 19.46% shares in the firm, while foreign portfolio investors and insurance companies held 6.66% and 7.92% shares, respectively. Individual shareholders owned around 11% stake in the company.
Post stake sale, the promoter holding in the company dropped to 50.16%, which were acquired by a slew of domestic mutual funds (MFs), foreign investors, and an insurance company.
For January-March quarter of 2022, the largecap stock reported over two-fold increase in its consolidated net profit at ₹62.96 crore compared with ₹29.47 crore in the same period a year ago. Its revenue from operations rose 12.77% to ₹665.24 crore in Q4 FY22, as against ₹589.90 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2020-21. For the fiscal ended March 2022, consolidated net profit stood at ₹102.99 crore against a net loss of ₹89.31 crore in the previous fiscal. The revenue from operations jumped to ₹2,387.71 crore, up 39.75% against ₹1,708.48 crore in the year-ago period.
The board of the company also recommended a dividend of 1,090% at ₹54.5 per equity share of ₹5 each fully paid-up of the company. This includes a one-time special dividend of ₹50.5 for the year ended March 31, 2022.
