 "Landmark Cars hits record high; up 11% in 2 days on institutional buying")
Shares of Landmark Cars hit a record high of Rs 766, surging 6 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Wednesday's intra-day trade. In the past two trading days, the stock of the automobile dealership chains has rallied 11 per cent on institutional buying. It surpassed the previous high of Rs 754.90, touched on June 26, 2023.
Landmark Cars made its stock market debut on December 23, 2022. Currently, the stock is trading 51 per cent higher against its issue price of Rs 506 per share.
US-based private equity major TPG Capital, through its affiliate TPG Growth II SF Pte Ltd, on Friday sold 4.46 million shares, representing its entire 11.25 per cent stake in Landmark Cars, for Rs 293 crore through an open market transaction via bulk deals on the NSE. With this transaction, TPG has exited the automobile dealership company.
Sanjay Karsandas Thakker, one of the promoters, also offloaded 560,094 shares of Landmark Cars via open market, according to block deal data available with the NSE. Both the transactions took place at Rs 658 per share.
These shares were picked up by a host of institutional investors, such as Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs Funds, Unifi Capital, Abakkus Asset Manager LLP, 3P India Equity Fund 1, and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company. Societe Generale bought 1.76 per cent stake in Landmark Cars, while the remaining investors purchased less than 1 per cent stake in the company, data shows.
Landmark Cars is the leading premium automotive retail business in India with dealerships for Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Jeep, Volkswagen, BYD and Renault. The company also caters to the commercial vehicle retail business of Ashok Leyland in India.
Moreover, the company has its presence across the automotive retail value chain, including sales of new vehicles, after-sales service and repairs, sales of pre-owned passenger vehicles and facilitation of the sales of third party financial, and insurance products.
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FY23 has been a stellar year for the automotive industry with several interesting trends coming to the fore, from a radical preference towards premiumization, shift towards SUVs, and gradual shift towards EVs.
"Global OEs are looking at India as a major market in the world which will grow on a sustained basis, and are thus investing in a big way in India. Landmark Cars with its comprehensive and strategic portfolio of premium brands and scale is fully geared to benefit in the coming years," the management said.