KFC, Pizza Hut Operator Sapphire Foods Gains After Block Trade; Know Details

Sapphire Foods Share Price: Sapphire Foods India’s share price rose more than 3 per cent after the company’s 68.2 lakh shares i.e. 10.7 percent equity changed hands in a block deal window. The development comes a day after the KFC and Pizza Hut operator informed the stock exchanges about its intent to sell up to 31.77 lakh equity shares out of its shareholding of 62.07 lakh shares in one or more tranches by December 21, 2022.

Sapphire Foods in an exchange filing on Wednesday said that the company has received intimation letter from a shareholder viz., WWD Ruby Limited, in relation to proposed sale of equity shares of the company held by them.

WWD Ruby in its letter said they intend to sell up to 31,77,127 equity shares representing 5 per cent of total equity of Sapphire Foods, in one or more tranches, by December 21, 2022.

As on September 30, 2022, the foreign company held 6.21 million shares or 9.77 per cent stake in Sapphire Foods, the shareholding pattern data shows.

According to BSE data, at 09:15 am; around 181,835 shares and at 09:37 am; around 131,332 shares changed hands via block deals. The names of the buyers and sellers were not ascertained immediately.

At 10:38 am; Sapphire Foods traded 3 per cent higher at Rs 1,401.75, as compared to 0.44 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The stock hit an intra-day low of Rs 1,347.05 on the BSE. Around 7.2 million shares representing 11 per cent of total equity of the company had changed hands on the BSE. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 1,573 on October 6, 2022.

Sapphire Foods’ pre-IPO lock-in period expired on November 15, following which 43.3 per cent of total shareholding was free to be sold.

In Q2FY23, Sapphire Foods recorded its highest ever revenue of Rs 560.4 crore with net profit at Rs 26.9 crore. In the year-ago period, Sapphire Foods had reported a loss of Rs 5 crore.

“KFC delivered same store sales growth of 15 percent and 36 percent increase in overall revenue. Due to the lower price increase against mid teens inflation, gross margins were impacted by 310 basis points,” the company had said.

Sapphire Foods is a leading YUM franchisee operator in the Indian subcontinent with presence in India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. As of September 30, 2022, the company owned and operated 301 KFC and 249 Pizza Hut restaurants in India, 99 Pizza Hut and 7 Taco Bell restaurants in Sri Lanka and 1 KFC and Pizza Hut each in Maldives.

Read all the Latest Business News here