ITC Block deal: GIC Singapore and ICICI Prudential MF pick up close to 50% of stake sale

Foreign and domestic fund houses aggressively bid for ITC shares, which was offered by its largest shareholder, British American Tobacco (BAT). While GIC Singapore bought as many as 9.2 crore shares of ITC, the domestic fund house, ICICI Prudential MF acquired another 12.4 crore shares through multiple blocks. The two together lapped up shares worth ₹8,627 crore, shows bulk deals data on BSE. The total deal was valued at ₹17,485 crore.

The London-listed BAT offered 43.69 crore shares, representing 3.5% of equity, at an average price of ₹400.25 per piece. Shares were offloaded at a discount of 1% against Tuesday’s close. The fall in discount to 1% against the initial offer of up to 5% indicates the kind of demand that it garnered from investors across the globe.

Other fund houses that bought more than one crore shares of ITC included BofA Securities Europe, which acquired 2.04 crore shares, Capital Income Builder (1.76 crore), Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius (1.76 crore), Copthall Mauritius Investment ( 1.36 crore), Ghisallo Master Fund (1.15 crore), Monetary Authority of Singapore (1.20 crore), Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore (1.53 crore) and Societe Generale (1.83 crore shares).