A 5-month "management consultancy" firm with 2 directors and no business to speak of, made a 100x return on its investment.

Their 130 million rupees is now worth more than 13.48 billion.

The bank statement of one of the directors in the firm is 219 rupees.

The consultancy is Ashav Advisory LLP.

Their claim to fame: Investment in Ruchi Soya.

The story:

A mismanaged business, bad allocation of funds and a founder who got burnt trying to resuscitate the business with ill-advised trades.

What followed was an epic saga:

Read this article for a detailed version: https://www.outlookbusiness.com/the-big-story/lead-story/how-far-did-baba-ramdev-stretch-to-bag-ruchi-soya-5899

28 bidders started a bidding for Ruchi Soya.

Adani WIlmar was the highest bidder. Adani's bid was 24% higher than the 2nd bidder.

The 2nd bidder was Patanjali.

96% of the creditors supported Adan's bid.

It was a done deal. So much so, Adani Wilmar and Ruchi's top management began discussing the next steps Ruchi must take.

In fact, the COO of Ruchi started discussing a new advertising campaign for Nutrela - its flagship product. Madhuri Dixit was to endorse the brand.

Patanjali raised objections to the bid. They were 3-fold;

1. Swadeshi vs MNC
2. Conflict of interest on same lawyers
3. A law that does not allow past defaulters to bid for distressed assets

In Dec 2018, Adani withdrew from the bid citing delays and the deterioration of the assets.

Then, in a complicated mixture of raising money to finance the deal fell through because banks and credit rating agencies were skeptical of Patanjali and its books.

It is in this context, The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, at an event, commented that:

banks need to should not be hesitant to give loans to companies backed by spiritual leaders.

YES, she said that. !!!!

Banks capitulated. Obviously.

Ironically, the very banks that took a 52% haircut on their earlier loans by Ruchi Soya ended up financing Patanjali to buyout Ruchi Soya.

To get that right again: Loans were just passed on to someone else - who themselves have a dubious record.

Only 1% of the entity is being traded now - majority to favour two suspect folks in a made-up firm.

Shareholders have been wiped out. The "management consultancy", Ashav will be laughing all the way to the bank.

WHAT. A. STORY.

Sadly, there aren't enough stories on this saga. This is a LOOOONG convoluted read, but it'll be well worth your time to pour through it.

Posting the original source here again https://www.outlookbusiness.com/the-big-story/lead-story/how-far-did-baba-ramdev-stretch-to-bag-ruchi-soya-5899

Imagine being told to sit down and first do yoga before a presentation.

Patanjali is definitely not getting the Employers of the Year Award any time soon.