CCI approves additional purchase of 6.72% stake in ANI tech by Ola founders

Last month, the founders of the cab aggregator had sought approval of CCI for the combination pertaining to the indirect acquisition of less than 10 per cent of the share capital of ANI through Lazar

Fair Trade regulator CCI said Monday it has approved additional share purchase by Ola founders, Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, in ANI Technologies, which owns the cab aggregator.

The additional acquisition of 6.72 per cent stake is made through Lazarus Holdings, which is incorporated in Singapore, and is a special purpose vehicle which will be used as an investment holding company.

"@CCI_India approves the acquisition of 6.72 per cent shares of ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd by Lazarus Holdings Pte. Ltd," the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in a tweet.

Last month, the founders of the cab aggregator had sought approval of CCI for the combination pertaining to the indirect acquisition of less than 10 per cent of the share capital of ANI by Ankit Bhati, Bhavish Aggarwal and MacRitchie through Lazarus from certain existing shareholders of ANI.

MacRitchie Investments is an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings.

Ola, which competes against US-based Uber, counts among its investors names like Softbank, Tiger Global, Tencent and Sequoia Capital, among others.

Merger and acquisitions beyond a certain threshold require the approval of the CCI.