Promoters of hypermart Spencer’s Retail have scooped up close to 3 per cent share of the company from the open market in an apparent bid to support the falling stock price of the company.

Rainbow Investments informed bourses that it has acquired 23,55,000 shares in two tranches between February 18 and February 20 and on March 1.

Prior to the creeping acquisitions, RP-SG Group — the promoter of Spencer’s — held a 49.91 per cent stake in the company.

After the stock purchases, the holding of the promoters have now gone up by 2.97 per cent to 52.88 per cent.

Sources said the share buy appears to be providing support to the Spencer’s stock that crashed on the bourses after listing on January 25.

From a high of Rs 225 when it debuted, the scrip had sunk to Rs 121.45 on February 8, data available with the National Stock Exchange show.

The share marginally recovered from there to close at Rs 149 on March 1 (Friday) on the NSE, gaining Rs 6.50, or 4.56 per cent, on that day.

Spencer’s, which operates as a food retailer across India, was carved out of CESC Ltd, the flagship of RP-SG Group, through a process of demerger.

CESC was split into three separate entities — CESC Ltd (power generation and distribution), Spencer’s Retail and CESC Ventures Ltd (FMCG, BPO).

In February, the company came up with its third-quarter numbers, posting a modest profit after tax of Rs 1.46 crore on a total income of Rs 580.31 crore. It had recorded Rs 543.62 crore of income and Rs 2.24 crore loss in the same period last fiscal.

Board rejig

Spencer’s also beefed up the board of the company by inducting Devendra Chawla as the chief operating officer and managing director for three years, effective February 11, 2019.

Prior to joining the Sanjiv Goenka-led company, Chawla was the chief operating officer of Walmart India and executive vice-president, global officer/board member.

The board also inducted Debanjan Mandal, partner of solicitor firm Fox & Mandal, as an independent member.