Mumbai

Adani Enterprises has withdrawn the scheme of demerger of its food FMCG business into Adani Wilmar, a move that would have brought Adani Wilmar under the control of the promoters of the Adani group.

The company said its board has decided to withdraw the scheme of arrangement between it and Adani Wilmar (AWL), owing to the latter having to comply with the minimum public shareholding (MPS) requirement.

“During the period in which AWL was implementing the MPS strategy, in accordance with the relevant SEBI Circulars, in order to offer directional clarity to shareholders, the draft Scheme is hereby withdrawn,” the company said.

The company had announced the scheme on August 1 this year, saying that the food FMCG business had become self-sustaining and was performing well on its own. Adani Enterprises holds nearly 44 per cent stake in Adani Wilmar through Adani Commodities and the demerger would have achieved the purpose of bringing it directly under the Adani group promoter and promoter group shareholders. It would have ceased to be joint venture entity of Adani Enterprises.

Adani Wilmar listed in February 2022 and the promoters have time till 2025 to bring down the promoter stake to 75 per cent under Sebi regulations. The promoter group — the Adani group and Lence Pte — hold 87.87 per cent stake.

The demerger proposal was also supposed to pave the way for the promoters to divest stake in Adani Wilmar. It was close to a stake sale last year but made no headway due on valuation and pricing issues.