Over $1.2 billion worth of block deals transacted in a single day

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It is raining blocks on deal street — with shares worth $1.2 billion being transacted in a single day. Private equity funds and promoters were either paring their stake in companies or exiting their holdings.

The biggest block of the day was that of Coforge in which Barings PE sold 1.6 crore shares or its entire 27 per cent of the IT consulting firm’s equity for around ₹7697 crore.

Other block deals were that of Manappuram Finance, which saw around 10 per cent equity being sold for ₹1177.4 crore by Quinag Acquisition FPI, which has exited its holding in the NBFC. BofA Securities bought 62.6 lakh shares or 0.7 per cent of its equity for ₹88.3 crore. Similar stakes were purchased by some brokerage firms.

Max Financial Services promoter entity Max Ventures Investment Holdings sold over 1.1 crore shares or 3.3 per cent of its equity for over ₹982 crore. It held around 10 per cent equity at the end of June.

RBL Bank also saw over 99 lakh shares or over 1.5 percent equity being sold by CDC Group for ₹228 crore. It had held 5.5 per cent stake at the end of June.

Sapphire Foods Mauritius sold 16.25 lakh shares or over 2.5 per cent equity in its subsidiary Sapphire Foods for ₹220 crore. Part of it was picked up by Wtcnam Common Trust Funds Trust Emerging Markets Opportunities Portfolio. The promoter entity had held 31.88 per cent stake at the end of June.

Paytm stake sale

So far this year bock deals worth over $10 billion have already taken place and there seem to be no signs of it abating. On Friday Paytm shareholder Antfin is expected to offload about 3.6 per cent stake in the payments firm for $243 million.

In a conversation with businessline last month, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company’s MD, CEO S Ramesh had said block deals were a great vehicle for exits by private market investors to public market investors. These trades were at near market prices, and they improved liquidity in the stock and reduced overhang.

He said that PE investors were monetising heir portfolio to ensure returns to investors and promoters were selling to ensure capital cushion. Market circles said that the momentum of block deals is only expected to increase in the following months.