Piramal exits Shriram Finance for ₹4,824 crore, GIC Singapore picks up stake

Piramal Enterprises on Wednesday sold its entire 8.34 per cent stake, or 3.12 crore shares, of Shriram Finance via multiple block deals on the National Stock Exchange.

All the transactions were made at ₹1,545 per share against the floor price of ₹1,483 and Tuesday’s closing price of ₹1,559.65. This translated to a deal value of around ₹4,824 crore.

Following the block deals, shares of Shriram Finance surged 15 per cent, touching its upper band at a record high of ₹1,793.55. It later pared some gains to close 11.3 per cent higher at ₹1,736.00.

GIC Singapore, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, was the largest buyer picking up 91.2 lakh shares followed by Societe Generale ODI which bought 30.4 lakh shares of Shriram Finance. A total of 54 buyers participated in the block deals.

T Rowe Price, Nippon Mutual Fund, Mirae Asset Mutual Fund, SBI Life Insurance, Fidelity Group, Kotak Life Insurance, Goldman Sachs (Singapore), JP Morgan, Saudi Central Bank, Vanguard Group, and the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global were among other large buyers that bought between 1-10 lakh shares.

Other buyers included HSBC, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Invesco Mutual Fund and several other foreign funds.

Several domestic institutional investors have been picking up stake in the retail-focussed NBFC given the recent exit of some large players. Piramal’s exit is the third such exit since the three-way merger of Shriram Capital and Shriram City Union Finance with Shriram Transport Finance in December 2022 to create Shriram Finance.

Earlier this week, TPG India Investments sold its entire 2.65 per cent stake in Shriram Finance for ₹1,390 crore. Prior to that, in January, PE firm Apax Partners had sold its 2.95 per cent stake for ₹1,300 crore, also via block deals.