Yoga Guru Firm Gets India Court Nod to Buy Out Cooking-Oil Maker

(Bloomberg) -- India’s company court approved a bid by a group of firms controlled by yoga guru Baba Ramdev to take over cooking oil and soya-products maker Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. for 43.5 billion rupees ($606 million).

Patanjali Consortium Adhigrahan Pvt. -- a venture by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. and three other companies -- will merge with Ruchi Soya, according to a stock exchange filing late Saturday. Shareholders of Patanjali Consortium will get one share of Ruchi Soya for each that they hold in the former.

Creditors of Ruchi Soya will receive a maximum of 42.4 billion rupees in repayments, a 65% haircut to the verified claims of about 121 billion rupees, according to the filing. The remaining 1.1 billion rupees will be used to finance the expansion of Ruchi Soya after the merger.

Shares of Ruchi Soya gained 1.1% to 4.60 rupees in Mumbai on Friday. They have slumped 49% this year, headed for a ninth straight annual decline.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ameya Karve in Mumbai at akarve@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, David Watkins

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