PB Fintech tanks 10% on likely stake sale by CEO

Industry:    2022-06-08

Shares of PB Fintech, the parent company of Policy Bazaar and Paisa Bazaar, tanked as much as 10 per cent in early trade on Tuesday after a reported bulk deal in the counter.

According to a regulatory filing, Yashish Dahiya, Chairman and CEO, PB Fintech is said to be selling around 37.7 lakh shares of the company, which accounts for 0.84 per cent stake. The stake, the release said, would be sold in the open market. However, post this stake sale, Dahiya would not be selling any further stake in PB Fintech for a period of one year.

The trading data from exchanges suggests that the bulk deal has taken place. However, ETmarkets.com could not independently verify the know about of the buyers.

More than 52.7 lakh shares of PB Fintech exchanged hands on National Stock Exchange (NSE), aggregating to about Rs 321 crore. On BSE, 1.32 lakh shares of the company were traded.

Following heavy volume induced trading, shares of PB Fintech plunged about 10 per cent to Rs 595, before trading at Rs 604.8 at 10 am. The scrip had settled at Rs 658.35 on Monday.

Shares of PB Fintech got listed in November last year. The company had sold its shares for Rs 980 apiece to raise Rs 5,625 crore.

The scrip zoomed to Rs 1,470 post listing but is now about 60 per cent below its all-time peak. The counter is still trading 40 per cent below its issue price, thanks to a sharp selloff in the tech-based platform companies.

Global brokerage firm Morgan Stanley has a target of Rs 945 on PB Fintech, which is below its issue price. It believes that the productivity metrics of the company are poised to improve.

“Adjusted Ebitda was in-line and the overall losses for the March quarter were lower than estimates. Revenue beat was driven by higher POSP business take rates. The improvement in productivity was due to synergetic combination,” it said.

Domestic brokerage firm ICICI Securities also has a buy call on the insurance and financial aggregator with a target price of Rs 940. JM Financial finds the stock Rs 870 worthy.

Earlier in February this year, Alok Bansal, co-founder of PB Fintech, had sold 28,57,820 shares of the company for Rs 236 crore.

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