Bulk Deals On Friday: Softbank Sells Stake In Zomato, Rajiv Jain-Led GQG Partners Boards GMR Airports

This Friday the Indian stock market was abuzz with a lot of activities with bulk deals taking place, and investors keenly awaiting RBI's decision on interest rates and inflation outlook by the central bank, and most important what caught the highest attention was the Indian benchmark indices reaching record high levels. When it comes to Indian equities, a unit of Japan's SoftBank SVF Growth (Singapore) Pte Ltd exited India's largest online food delivery service provider Zomato through open market transactions on December 8.

The bulk deals data available on exchanges shows that SVF Growth (Singapore) offloaded the remaining 9.35 crore equity shares at an average price of Rs 120.5 per share in the food delivery for around Rs 1,127.5 crore.

Earlier, in October this year, it had sold 9.35 crore shares at an average price of Rs 111.2 per equity share. This is the third time since August this year that the Japanese tech giant SoftBank has offloaded its stake in Zomato. Shares of Zomato Ltd closed 1.56% lower at Rs 119.90 per share on Friday.

One should note that last month on November 29, another foreign investor Ant Group-owned Alipay Singapore Holding Pte Ltd also exited the the Indian company by selling its complete 3.44% stake in the company.

Now, with a fresh stake sale by SoftBank, two big investors exited the company in just less than a couple of weeks.The stake sale comes at a time when Chinese investors have been paring their stakes in Indian companies.

GMR Airports Infrastructure

After the bulk deals that happened in GMR Airports Infrastructure, the stock closed 11.73% higher at Rs 68.89 on Friday, the highest level since June 2009. On Friday, the share price of GMR Airports Infrastructure traded at a new 52-Week High value of 70.22, besides the GMR Airports Infrastructure share price also touched the upper circuit of Rs. 67.82 on the same day.

As per reports, GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund, and Goldman Sachs Trust II via Goldman Sachs GQG Partners International Opportunities Fund purchased 28.29 crore equity shares, equivalent to 4.7% of paid-up equity in GMR Airports at an average price of Rs 59.09 per share, amounting to Rs 1.671.55 crore.

Rajiv Jain-owned GQG Partners is the same Florida-based investment management firm that had early made a significant investment in Adani stock at a time when shares of Gautam Adani firm were facing a lot of turbulence in the wake of the Hindenburg Research report.

Other firms that purchased shares in GMR Airports were Nomura India Investment Fund Mother Fund which bought 6.25 crore equity shares equivalent 1 percent stake in GMR, and Stichting Depositary APG Emerging Markets Equity Pool picked 3.4 crore shares (0.56% stake) in GMR at an average price of Rs 58.20 per share.

The companies that exited GMR include foreign portfolio investors A/D Investors Fund LP (sold 7.56 crore shares at an average price of Rs 58.20 per share), ASN Investments (sold entire 43.9 crore shares at an average price of Rs 58.21 per share), and Varanium India Opportunity (sold 13.9 crore shares at an average price of Rs 58.47 per share), respectively. Deccan Value Investors Fund LP sold 5.6 crore shares equivalent to 0.93% stake in GMR at an average price of Rs 58.20 per share.