SoftBank offloads ₹1,885 crore worth of Meesho shares; stake falls to 5.19%
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Japanese investor SoftBank Group has sold 1.65 per cent stake in Meesho for ₹1,885 crore, further trimming its investments in India's e-commerce sector.
In the latest transaction, SVF II Meerkat (DE) LLC, an affiliate of SoftBank, offloaded 7.64 crore shares in Bengaluru-based Meesho, according to the block deal data on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
The share sale was executed on Friday at an average price of ₹246.75 apiece, taking the total deal value to ₹1,885.17 crore.
With this, the affiliate's holding in Meesho has fallen to 5.19 per cent from 6.84 per cent.
The stake sale, however, found buyers, with a clutch of domestic and foreign institutional investors participating in the transaction, with Societe Generale (SocGen) emerging as the largest buyer.
Paris-based financial services firm SocGen picked up more than 1.47 crore shares, or a 0.32 per cent stake, for ₹364.65 crore.
Domestic institutional buyers included mutual funds managed by Motilal Oswal, HDFC, Edelweiss and Aditya Birla Sun Life, along with Bajaj Life Insurance.
Overseas participants included Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, Ghisallo Capital Management, William Blair Investment Management and Texas Municipal Retirement System.
The Singaporean government, Monetary Authority of Singapore and Norway's sovereign wealth fund Government Pension Fund Global, also participated in the transaction.
Meesho shares rose 1.53 per cent to close at ₹257.99 apiece on the NSE on Friday.
The latest transaction adds to a series of stake sales by SoftBank in its Indian portfolio companies, particularly in the e-commerce and consumer technology space.
Earlier this month, the Japanese investor pared a 1.56 per cent stake in eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions for ₹1,896 crore. Before that, in September, it sold a 1.7 per cent stake in Meesho for ₹1,650 crore.
SoftBank had also divested nearly a 2.6 per cent stake in Lenskart for ₹2,888 crore in August and a further 3.25 per cent stake for ₹2,873 crore in June.
In January, the technology investor reduced its shareholding in electric two-wheeler maker Ola Electric Mobility by 2.15 per cent, continuing its broader portfolio monetisation exercise in the country.