The world’s biggest alternative asset manager Blackstone is looking to sell a large chunk of its shareholding in packaging firm Essel Propack Ltd through block trades, which could fetch the investor as much as $251 million.
Epsilon Bidco Pte. Ltd, a Blackstone entity which owns 75% of Essel Propack, is looking to sell up to 23% stake representing around 72.5 million shares of the company, according to deal terms seen by Mint.
The sale would fetch Blackstone about Rs1,850 crore or $251 million.
It has set a floor price of Rs255 per share, a discount of around 6.5% to Thursday’s closing price of Rs273 apiece, on the BSE.
UBS Securities India Pvt Ltd and Systematix Shares & Stocks are managing the share sale.
Blackstone’s plan to sell a large chunk of Essel Propack shares comes 18 months after it acquired the company from its erstwhile promoters, the Essel Group.
Blackstone spent around $460 million to acquire the controlling stake in the company, buying out 51% from the promoters for $310 million, while the remaining amount was spent on acquiring shares from public shareholders through an open offer.
The promoter stake was purchased at a price of Rs134 apiece.
“There is strong liquidity in the market and thus PE firms are seeing this as a good time to create some liquidity in their listed holdings by selling part of their stakes. They also have some loans at the Mauritius level, which were taken to fund the acquisition and they could use the proceeds to pare down that debt,” said a person aware of the PE firm’s plans.
Earlier in June, Blackstone had sold a 8.7% stake in Embassy REIT worth around $300 million.
