Private equity major Blackstone sold a partial stake in listed auto ancillary, Sona BLW Precision in multiple block deals on stock exchanges, Thursday morning.
Sona BLW Precision’s shares traded with cuts of 3.4% at around Rs 521 apiece on the National Stock Exchange during Thursday’s opening trade. The $500 million book was oversubscribed, according to a person in the know. Singapore's sovereign fund GIC subscribed to the deal alongside other investors and mutual funds such as SBI MF, Nippon MF, Kotak MF, HDFC MF, Nomura asset management, Eastspring Investments, and Manulife.
Mint had reported on Wednesday that Blackstone will sell Sona BLW Precision’s shares in a block deal. The PE firm offloaded 13.6% stake for Rs 509 per share, pocketing Rs 4,044 crore or $509 million.
The deal comes on the back of a resurgence in the stock market after hitting a low in June. The markets have delivered a 17% return till date, and foreign investors are rushing back to Indian equities.
Blackstone held 34.12% in Sona BLW as of 30 June, 2022 after selling a large chunk of its shareholding worth ₹5,250 crore during the company’s initial public offering (IPO) in June last year.
Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd is the sole broker for the trade.
The Blackstone block trade for Sona BLW comes immediately after KKR’s ₹9,185 crore block trade for Max Healthcare, which helped the private equity firm to sell its entire stake in the hospital chain.
The trade also follows the secondary sale by Uber, which sold its entire 7.78% stake in food delivery platform Zomato for ₹3,088 crore earlier this month.
This has created a window of opportunity for all existing shareholders to explore secondary share sales through block trades, said experts.
Sona BLW listed on bourses on 14 June 2021 at a premium of nearly 4% over its issue price of Rs 291 per share. The IPO comprised of a fresh issue of Rs 300 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of Rs 5,250 crore.
The auto components maker designs, manufactures and supplies automotive systems such as differential assemblies, gears, conventional and micro-hybrid starter motors, EV traction motors and motor control units.
