Wipro chief goes shopping; buys stake in Subhiksha

Azim Premji, promoter of Wipro, has bought a 10 per cent stake in food and grocery retailer Subhiksha for about Rs 230 crore.

This transaction was done by Premji's personal investment entity Zash Investments Limited.

The stake was bought from ICICI Ventures, a private equity arm of ICICI Bank, sources said. Subhikha Managing Director R Subramanian was not available for comment.

After this transaction, Subhikha's promoters will have 59 per cent stake in Chennai-based retailer, followed by ICICI Ventures' 23 per cent. Mutual funds have 5 per cent holding. The employees control 3 per cent stake through stock option route.

Premji's stake purchase in Subhiksha follows his decision in April to buy a 2 per cent stake in Kuotons Retail for about Rs 20 crore. He earlier bought more than 3 per cent stake in a Bangalore-based textiles-related company, Himatsingka Ltd.

In June, Subhiksha had acquired a 40 per cent stake in Blue Green Constructions and Investments, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) listed on the Madras Stock Exchange, for Rs 2 crore.

Subhiksha plans to merge Blue Green with itself and the merged entity will be called Subhiksha Limited.