Standard Life To Sell 3.46% Stake In HDFC Life

Standard Life Group will sell 3.46% stake HDFC Life Insurance Co. for $640 million (over Rs 4,600 crore) via a block deal, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings) 2006 Ltd. is selling 7 crore shares at Rs 658-678 apiece, Bloomberg reported citing terms of the deal. The price range represents a discount of 2.6-5.5% to Monday’s close of Rs 696.20.

According to the terms, Standard Life will be subject to a 90-day lockup.

As of March-end, Standard Life’s stake in HDFC Life stood at 8.88%. After this deal, that will be reduced to 5.46%.

Standard Life has been reducing its holdings in HDFC Life for almost two years. Since 2019, it has divested 16.46% for Rs 12,943 crore via multiple deals.

• March 2019: Divested 4.93% stake for Rs 3,600 crore.

• August 2019: Sold 3.2% stake via block deals for about Rs 3,220 crore.

• October 2019: Offloaded 4.96% stake for Rs 5,750 crore.

• June 2020: Pared 2% for Rs 1,890 crore.

• December 2020: Sold 1.37% stake for Rs 1,703 crore.

Bank of America and JPMorgan will be joint bookrunners of the stake sale.

Shares of HDFC Life closed 4.1% lower on the BSE while the benchmark BSE Sensex ended 0.36% down on Monday.