Indus Towers plunges up to 10% after over 53 crore shares change hands in block deals

Shares of Indus Towers Ltd plunged nearly 10% in trade on Wednesday, June 19, after a huge block deal on the counter saw as much as 20% equity of the company changing hands.

According to data available on exchanges, around 53.3 crore shares of Indus Towers were traded via open market transactions. This aggregated to a deal size of ₹17,065 crore.

This is likely the second-largest block deal executed in India after British American Tobacco Plc (BAT) sold a 3.5% stake in ITC through an open market transaction for around ₹17,485 crore in March this year.

The names of sellers and buyers in the Indus Towers deal could not be immediately verified, but multiple news reports claimed that UK's Vodafone Group was planning to sell 18% stake in the company through block deals.

The reports added that the buyers in the deal included many names including private equity firm Squared Capital and alternative investment firm Stonepeak.

The Indus Towers shares were reportedly sold in the price range of ₹310-341. This translated into a discount of up to 9.9% from Tuesday’s closing price of ₹344.55, considering the lower end of the price band.

Indus Towers stock dropped as much as 9.6% in opening trade to hit an intraday low of ₹311.4 apiece on the NSE. However, by 10:30 am, the shares recovered some of early losses to trade 4.5% lower at ₹329.05 apiece.

The Vodafone Idea stock was also trading 2.6% lower at ₹16.41 apiece on the NSE.

Vodafone Group was reportedly looking to sell its entire $2.3 billion stake in Indus Towers as a part of a strategic move to reduce its huge debt of around $42.17 billion. Earlier in March 2022, Vodafone Plc had sold a 4.7% stake in Indus Towers to Bharti Airtel Ltd.