In a season of promoter selloffs, the bourses on Thursday witnessed five big deals for a cumulative amount of Rs 10,300 crore — led by Hulst BV, the promoter of Coforge Ltd (formerly NIIT Technologies), selling its entire 26.63 per cent for Rs 7,684 crore through an open market transaction.
Such sales are riding the crest of a stock market rally — though there have been some recent blips — propelled by FPI inflows and retail individuals putting money into mutual funds.
While the Adani family is one such entity, there have been other instances such as Twin Star Holdings divesting more than 4 per cent in Vedanta or more recently Evergraph Holdings, part of the promoter group of SJS Enterprises, parting with more than 91 lakh shares or 29.5 per cent of equity.
Last week, Shobha Gangwal, the wife of IndiGo co-promoter Rakesh Gangwal, sold nearly 2.99 per cent stake for Rs 2,802 crore.
Stock exchange data showed Hulst selling 16.27 crore shares at an average price of Rs 4,722.15. Some of the shares were picked up by Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, Graviton Research Capital, HDFC Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, Kotak Funds, SBI Mutual Fund and Societe Generale.
The Netherlands-registered Hulst BV is owned and controlled by funds affiliated with BPEA (Baring Private Equity Asia).
In May, Hulst BV had divested 3.5 per cent stake in the company for Rs 887 crore through an open market transaction. It had then offloaded 21.50 lakh shares at an average price of Rs 4,125.44.
While such bulk deals usually bring pressure on the stock, the Coforge share bucked the trend and ended with big gains of 9.76 per cent or Rs 479.30 on the BSE.
The IT firm was not the only company which witnessed a large deal.
Private sector lender RBL Bank saw development finance institution CDC Group Plc offloading 99.4 lakh shares for Rs 230.02 apiece, aggregating Rs 229 crore and accounting for nearly 1.66 per cent of the bank’s equity.
At the end of the June quarter, CDC held 3.3 crore shares or 5.53 per cent of the bank.
Manappuram Finance was another company which saw big deals: the key highlight was Quinag Acquisition (FPI) Ltd selling 8.3 crore shares at Rs 140.50 for Rs 1,177 crore. These shares accounted for nearly 9.90 per cent of its equity. In doing so, Quinag sold its entire stake in the company.
Another promoter entity — Max Ventures Investment Holdings Pvt Ltd — unloaded 1.1 crore shares of Max Financial Services for Rs 873 per share, taking the total consideration to Rs 982 crore. The shares accounted for nearly 3.26 per cent of the company.
Similarly, Sapphire Foods India which is one of the largest franchisees of Yum! Brands Inc in the subcontinent, also witnessed big action when promoter entity Sapphire Foods Mauritius Ltd sold 16.24 lakh shares or 2.55 per cent stake at Rs 1,355 apiece for Rs 220 crore.
Subway sale
Subway said Thursday it will be sold to Roark Capital, a private equity firm, reports AP.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Atlanta-based Roark was offering around $9.6 billion for Subway.
