ITC, India’s biggest cigarette maker has reportedly increased its stake in EIH, Oberoi Group Company by 1%. The company has bought 5.73 million shares at Rs 73 a share through its subsidiary, Russel Credit, at a total cost of Rs 41.89 crore.
Following the acquisition, ITC’s stake in EIH has increased to 15.89%. ITC has acquired EIH shares at a price which is a month’s low.
Recently, the company announced that it is aiming to venture into dairy products, drinks and perhaps even healthy breakfast foods to expand its money-losing consumer products business. Normally, it sells 80% of the cigarettes in the world's second most populous country where 275 million people use tobacco products but as India follows the rest of the world in adopting anti-smoking regulations, the company's core tobacco business is getting compressed.
