Bharti Enterprises sells shares of ICICI Lombard for Rs 663 crore

Sunil Bharti Mittal-promoted Bharti Enterprises on Thursday offloaded shares of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company for Rs 663 crore through open market transactions.

Axis Mutual Fund (MF), Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Invesco MF, Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore, Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs Singapore and Blackstone Aqua Master Sub-Fund acquired shares of Mumbai-based general insurer.

Bharti Enterprises Ltd sold 38.50 lakh shares, amounting to a 0.8 per cent stake in ICICI Lombard through nine separate block deals on the BSE. The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 1,722.5 apiece, taking the deal size to Rs 663.16 crore.

After the stake sale, the shareholding of Bharti Enterprises declined to 1.63 per cent from 2.43 per cent. ICICI Bank purchased 21 lakh shares, representing a 0.4 per cent stake in its subsidiary ICICI Lombard, for 361.72 crore.

After the stake purchase, ICICI Bank's stakeholding in the ICICI Lombard increased to 51.7 per cent from 51.27 per cent. Shares of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company dropped 4.05 per cent to close at Rs 1,651.05 apiece on the BSE.

On February 27 this year, promoter ICICI Bank acquired an additional 1.4 per cent stake in ICICI Lombard for Rs 1,356 crore. On February 29, the private sector lender bought an additional 25.14 lakh shares of ICICI Lombard for Rs 431 crore. After this, ICICI Lombard became a subsidiary of ICICI Bank.

In August 2020, ICICI Lombard acquired Bharti AXA General Insurance. Thereafter, Bharti Group received ICICI Lombard shares as part of all stock deals with the company.