Carlyle sells 4.2% in SBI Life at Rs 960 per share in pre-market deal

Private equity (PE) major Carlyle on Friday sold 4.2 per cent in SBI Life Insurance Company. The share sale was done on BSE’s pre-market block window at Rs 960 per share.

CA Emerald Investments, an affiliate of Carlyle Asia Partners, sold a total of 4.23 million shares for Rs 4,061 crore, data provided by the exchange showed.

More than three dozen institutional investors were among the buyers. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund picked up 9 million shares worth Rs 864.0 crore, while Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and Government of Singapore 4.6 million and 3.5 million respectively.

Prior to the stake sale, CA Emerald held 60 million shares (6 per cent) stake in the company.

In March 2019, the US-based PE firm had acquired 9 per cent stake in SBI Life for $653 million (Rs 4,632 crore) from France’s BNP Paribas.

Later in November 2019, Carlyle offloaded 3 per cent stake at Rs 938 per share to raise Rs 2,814 crore.

Currently, SBI holds 55.5 per cent stake in SBI Life, BNP holds only 0.2 per cent, while Carlyle’s stake has declined to 1.8 per cent.

Shares of SBI on Friday closed at Rs 1,000, with a gain of 3.22 per cent.