New Delhi: Nearly 97 lakh bids were withdrawn in Ruchi Soya Industries’ Rs 4,300 crore follow on public offer after markets watchdog Sebi had directed the company to give investors the option to withdraw their bids, according to sources. However, the Follow on Public Offer (FPO) is complete. In a rare move, Sebi, on March 28, had asked bankers of Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali group’s Ruchi Soya to give an option to investors in its FPO to withdraw their bids while also cautioning them about the “circulation of unsolicited SMS” about the share sale. The FPO closed on March 28 and the withdrawal window was open for two days till March 30 as per the Sebi directive. The sources said the the subscription of the offer came down to 3.39 times on March 30 from 3.6 times, which was the level when the offer closed on March 28. This reflects that around 97 lakh bids were withdrawn, primarily by foreign investors. On March 28, more than 17.60 crore bids had come in for the FPO whereas the number of shares on offer was little over 4.89 crore. The price band for the offer was Rs 615-650 per share. On Sebi’s directions, bankers issued an advertisement in newspapers on Tuesday and Wednesday (March 29, 30) cautioning investors about the circulation of SMSes and also asked to give an option to investors to withdraw their already placed bids till March 30. Ruchi Soya came out with the FPO in order to meet the minimum public shareholding norm of 25 per cent as required for a listed entity. The company would utilise the entire issue proceeds for furthering its business by repayment of certain outstanding loans, meeting its incremental working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes, according to the Draft Red Herring Prospectus. In 2019, Patanjali acquired Ruchi Soya through an insolvency process for Rs 4,350 crore.