New Delhi, Mar 24 (IANS): Diversified FMCG company Ruchi Soya Industries has raised Rs 1,290 crore from anchor investors ahead of its follow-on public offering (FPO) that opens for public subscription on Thursday.

A follow-on offering is the issuance of additional shares made by a company after an initial public offering (IPO).

The upcoming FPO is going to be only a fresh issuance of equity shares to public investors without any offer for sale component, a statement said on Wednesday.

The company informed the exchanges that the price band for its FPO has been set at Rs 615 per equity share (at the lower end of the price-band) to Rs 650 per equity share (at the higher end of the price-band).

On Wednesday, it informed the bourses that 19,843,153 equity shares have been allocated to anchor investors at the upper-end of the price-band against the applications from various anchor investors.

Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, The Sultanate of Oman - Ministry of Defence Pension Fund, Yas Takaful PJSC (an Abu Dhabi-based insurance company), MK Cohesion, UPS Group and Alchemy were among the foreign investors that received allocation under the anchor investor portion of the FPO, the statement said.

Currently, Patanjali Group owns about 98.9 per cent stake in Ruchi Soya, while public shareholders own about 1.1 per cent stake.

Post the FPO, Patanjali Group's holding in Ruchi Soya will come down to about 81 per cent, and the public shareholders would hold about 19 per cent.

The entire proceeds from the follow-on issue will be used for furthering the company's business by repayment of certain outstanding loans, meeting its incremental working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes, the company had said recently while announcing the FPO.

Ruchi Soya's Ruchi Gold brand is the market leader in branded palm oil and also the pioneer of soya foods in India under the brand name Nutrela.