Carlyle sells shares worth over Rs 4,800 cr in SBI Card

Private equity major Carlyle group on Friday sold shares worth over Rs 4,800 crore in SBI Cards and Payment Services and its nominee stepped down from the company's board.

CA Rover Holdings (CARH), a subsidiary of Carlyle group, offloaded more than 4.7 crore shares of SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd (SBI Card) worth about Rs 4,811 crore through open market transactions on BSE and NSE.

With the latest sale of shares, the group's shareholding in the company fell below 10 per cent, following which its nominee director on SBI Card's board -- Sunil Kaul -- stepped down.

As per SBI Card's Articles of Association, CARH's right to nominate a director was subject to its shareholding being at least 10 per cent.

At the end of March 2021, CARH held 11.61 per cent stake in SBI Card.

CARH offloaded 1.05 crore shares of the company through a bulk deal valued at Rs 1,061.15 crore on BSE.

Besides, it sold more than 3.74 crore shares on NSE through a separate bulk deal worth Rs 3,749.81 crore, as per exchange data.

On Friday, shares of the company declined 4.30 per cent to Rs 1,005.7 apiece on BSE and 4.16 per cent to Rs 1,008 on NSE.

Through a separate transaction, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte-ODI bought 54.09 lakh shares of SBI Card at an average price of Rs 1,002, taking the deal value to Rs 542.03 crore, the exchange data showed.

In a filing to the bourses, SBI Card said CARH has withdrawn nomination of Sunil Kaul as director on the board since its shareholding has fallen below 10 per cent in the company.

In March this year, CARH had divested 4.25 per cent stake in SBI Card at an average price of Rs 985.98 apiece in a transaction worth Rs 3,943 crore.

SBI Card came out with a Rs 9,000 crore initial public offer in March 2020, involving sale of up to 37,293,371 shares by SBI and up to 93,233,427 shares by Carlyle group (through CARH).

According to a separate filing, SBI Card's board on Friday approved appointment of Mihir Narayan Prasad Mishra as a director nominated by State Bank of India.

Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters