4.7% stake of Heritage Foods bought by Azim Premji

Through a series of open market transactions, Wipro Chief Azim Premji has bought a 4.68% stake in food and retail company Heritage Foods (India) Ltd. The stake has been purchased by investment entities in turn owned by Premji.

A spokesperson for Heritage Foods said, “Three companies in which Azim Premji is a director have collectively bought 4.68 per cent stake through open market deals. Institutional investor Kotak India Focus Fund has sold its 9 per cent stake and part of that was acquired by these entities.”

He also added that it the company is open to strategic partnership in retail business for improving its growth but will avert any strategic investor at the group company level.

The entities involved in the transactions included Napean Trading Investment Co Pvt Ltd, Regal Investment Trading Co. Pvt Ltd and Vidya Investment Trading Co. Pvt Ltd.

Heritage Foods has been holding a strong stance on the stock market. Its share price have substantially increased more than 4 times and hit a 52 week high in late November 2015.

Heritage Group is owned by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu. It operates four business divisions – dairy, retail, agri and bakery – under its flagship company, Heritage Foods.

Its milk products under the Heritage brand have market presence in Andhra Pradesh Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Orissa. The food & grocery retail stores under Heritage Retail are located across Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. The company has also entered the market with its own FMCG products under the mother brand for packaged food products.

Its agri operations (which include contract farming, packing units and greenhouses) are located in Chittoor and Medak districts, and serve as the backbone to retail operations and the bakery unit at Uppal in Hyderabad.