To comply with the 25% minimum public shareholding norm, edible oil major Adani Wilmar on Saturday said its promoters will offload a total of 1.24% stake or about 1.61 crore shares of the company next week onwards.

“Adani Commodities LLP and Lence Pte Ltd, the promoters of the company have conveyed to us their intention to sell the Equity Shares to enable us to comply with minimum public shareholding norms,” Adani Wilmar said in a regulatory filing.

As part of the divestment, the promoters will sell up to 1.24% of the total paid-up equity share capital of the company aggregating to 1,61,16014 shares in between December 26 and January 31.

At the end of the September quarter, Adani Commodities owned 43.97% stake in the company while the other promoter Lence Pte, part of the Wilmar Group, also owned an equal number of 43.97% stake in the FMCG firm.

Together, the promoters own 87.94% stake in the company.

Sebi rules mandates all listed companies to maintain a mninimum public shareholding of 25% but newly-listed companies get a 3-year waiver to meet the public float requirement.

The stock had listed on stock exchanges in February 2022 following a Rs 3,600 crore IPO in which shares were issued at Rs 230 per share.

Like most other Adani stocks, Adani Wilmar too has faced the brunt of investor sell-off in 2023 following the Hindenburg report. The stock is down almost 40% so far in the calendar year. On Friday, the counter ended 4% higher at Rs 365.20 on BSE after the Indian government allowed the import of edible oils at lower import tax rates until March 2025.

In recent months, there have been reports that the Adani Group is in talks with multiple multinational consumer goods companies to exit the FMCG business.

Adani Wilmar is one of the largest players in the edible oil segment and owns the Fortune brand of edible oils and packaged grocery. In the September quarter, it had reported a 13.3% year-on-year (YoY) drop in revenue to Rs 12,267.15 crore and a quarterly loss of Rs 130.73 crore.