ITC Hotels block deals: HCL Capital buys shares worth Rs 2,998 crore; ADIA and Morgan Stanley join major buyers

HCL Capital Private Limited emerged as the largest acquirer of British American Tobacco’s (BAT) stake in ITC Hotels. The NBFC company associated with Shiv Nadar’s HCL Group on Friday bought 14.58 crore shares worth Rs 2,998 crore through a block deal. In separate block deals, major investors Nippon India Mutual Fund, Societe Generale, Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), BNP Paribas and Vanguard Group also took significant stakes.The block deals worth Rs 3,856 crore saw BAT’s wholly-owned subsidiaries Tobacco Manufacturers (India) Limited, Myddleton Investment Company Limited and Rothmans International Enterprises Limited sell the issued ordinary share capital in the ITC-promoted company. Together they sold 18.75 crore shares.

Tobacco Manufacturers India sold 12.34 crore shares amounting to Rs 2,537.17 crore from the sale of the shares. Myddelton sold 4.86 crore shares for Rs 1,000 crore, while Rothmans International Enterprises sold 1.55 crore shares for a consideration of Rs 319 crore.Block deal details:

— HCL Capital

HCL Capital, where Shiv Nadar’s wife Kiran Nadar and daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra are non-executive director and director and chairman respectively, bought shares at a price of Rs 205.65 each, 1% lower than Thursday’s closing price of Rs 207.72 on the NSE.

— Nippon India MF bought over 2.57 crore shares for Rs 530 crore. — Societe Generale bought 21.60 lakh shares at Rs 44.42 core.

— Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore Pte bought 9.16 lakh shares for Rs 19 crore.

– BNP Paribas Arbitrage buys 42.06 lakh shares at Rs 205.65 each = deal size = 86.50 crore

– ADIA bought 6 lakh shares for Rs 12.34 crore.

– Vanguard Group bought 80.67 lakh shares for Rs 166 crore.

BAT had announced the block deal on Thursday. It says the funds raised will help the company transition to its target leverage range of 2 to 2.5x adjusted net debt/adjusted EBITDA (ex-Canada) by the end of 2026.

Commenting on the development, BAT CEO Tadeu Marroco said the company’s direct shareholding in ITC Hotels was the result of the demerger process completed by ITC earlier this year. “As previously stated, a direct stake in ITC Hotels is not a strategic holding for BAT. Therefore, I am pleased that the proceeds from this transaction will further support continued progress towards our targeted 2026 leverage corridor,” he added.

Founded in 1975, ITC Hotels’ business has grown to over 140 hotels in over 90 destinations across the Indian subcontinent.

Following a demerger from ITC Limited, ITC Hotels has been trading as a listed entity since January 2025. As a result of its shareholding in ITC at the time of the demerger, BAT has an interest of approximately 15.3% in ITC Hotels.

The shares were listed on BSE at Rs 188 and at Rs 180 on NSE on January 29, 2025 with a market capitalization of around Rs 39,000 crore. The listing price was lower than what The Street had given earlier on January 6 during a special price discovery session in which the stock was assigned a value of around Rs 260 on Nifty and around Rs 270 on BSE indices.

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