American private equity major KKR has sold one-third of the shares it held in life insurance company SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd through a block deal on the market, data from stock exchanges shows.
Value Line Pte Ltd, an affiliate of KKR that held the shares, has sold 6.5 million shares at a price of ₹775 apiece. The sale will fetch KKR ₹503.7 crore (approx $73 million).
Before the sale KKR held a total of 19.5 million shares in the company, representing a 1.95% stake in the life insurer.
The PE firm had acquired the SBI Life stake in December 2016, when it, along with Singapore state-owned investor Temasek bought 19.5 million shares each in the insurance company from its promoter State Bank of India for a total of ₹1,800 crore.
KKR and Temasek had bought the shares at a price of ₹460 per share. The stake sale to these investors was a precursor to the initial public offering of the company.
In September 2017, SBI Life went public in an IPO that saw its promoters SBI and BNP Paribas Cardiff sell shares worth ₹8,400 crore. Shares of the company were sold in the IPO at a price of₹700 per share.
Source: Mint