Vakrangee tanks 53% in 6 days; what went wrong? Management clarifies

Shares of Vakrangee hit its lowest circuit on Monday for fourth session in a row, taking its losing streak to sixth session, follwoing news reports the company has manipulated its own stock price and is undergoing a probe by Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The company also tweaked its treasury policy last month. 

The stock shed as much as 53 per cent in the last six sessions since January 29. The company's lower circuit has been revised to 10 per cent from 20 per cent after the stock froze in its lower circuit for two days in a row, losing over 40 per cent.

Speaking on its treasury policy, Dinesh Nandwana, Managing Director & CEO, Vakrangee said in an interview to Zee Business: Earlier, we had a mandate to invest 75 per cent into debt, and 25 per cent into equities. Following the suggestions by the shareholders, we have changed the treasury policy. Now 90 per cent goes into debt, and just 10 per cent into equities, that too via mutual fund (mf); no direct investment will be made in equities. 

On asking if the company has sold shares of PC Jeweller in open market, Nandwana, refrained from naming a company and added all these are internal discussions of the treasury committee. 

#ZBizExclusive: What's gone wrong at Vakrangee? @ZeeBusiness speaks to Dinesh Nandwana , Managing Director & CEO. pic.twitter.com/kuHvOKjRbg

— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) February 5, 2018

"All the relevant disclosures will be made to the exchanges when the right time comes," he said. 

Meanwhile, the company on Friday clarified to exchanges that it is not involved in any kind of stock manipulation. 

"Vakrangee would like to highlight that we have not received any communication either from stock exchanges or SEBI. The rumours of involvement of Company in price and volume manipulation are completely baseless and factually incorrect," informed Vakrangee to exchanges.

“We are extremely confident of our business model and continue to grow steadily. We are well on track to achieve our Vision 2020 target of 75,000 Vakrangee Kendra outlets by 2020 with $2 Billion of revenue and covering each postal code of India," it added. 

Incorporated in 1990, Vakrangee is a technology driven company focused on building last-mile retail outlets to deliver real-time banking, insurance, e-governance, e-commerce and logistics services to the unserved & underserved rural, semi-urban and urban markets. 

The stock of the company is a multibagger and even after running a downtrend for last six sessions, its five-year return adds up to 600 per cent.