On Thursday, Kayak Investments, a prominent shareholder and one of the leading promotors of Max Healthcare Institute, offloaded a 10% stake in the company at an average price of Rs 340.02 per piece.
According to reports, it sold 96.96 million shares through block deals valued at Rs 3,297 crore on National Stock Exchange. This bulk offloading would effectively bring down Kayak Investments’ holdings in Max Healthcare Institute to 27.54% from 37.54% earlier.
Significantly, of the total shares offloaded, Smaller Cap World Fund acquired 16.40 million shares while the Government of Singapore bought another 10.78 million shares.
Some other leading buyers of the offloaded shares also included WF Asian Smaller Companies Fund, Norges Bank, and SBI Mutual Funds. While the WF Asian Smaller Companies Fund purchased 13.39 million shares, Norges Bank and SBI MF bought some 11.29 million shares. This was reflected in the bulk deal data on the NSE portal.
Some officials well-versed with the deal said on the condition of anonymity that these offloading were necessary to comply with the minimum public shareholding threshold set by the market regulator Sebi.
The deal’s effect got reflected in the headline-driven market as the shares of Max Healthcare closed 3.7% lower on Thursday at Rs 347.65 on the NSE. Notably, the shares of Max Healthcare have been on a correction spree since December, when they were valued at Rs. 442 on NSE.
Meanwhile, stock markets all over the world are undergoing an extremely volatile phase in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The market had tanked enormously the day Russia declared war on Ukraine.
Rising interest rates, especially by the US federal reserve, have also forced stock markets to go on a correction spree, as observed for the last few months, even though many stocks have rebounded to their early January levels. Uncertainty over the oil supply has also influenced the stock markets over the last few weeks.
Max Healthcare Institute Limited is a leading hospital chain based
in New Delhi, India. It owns and operates state-of-the-art hospitals across the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, North India, and Mumbai. It opened its first medical center in South Delhi’s Panchsheel Park in 2000. Since then, it has kept expanding its branches throughout Delhi and Northern India.
The company reported a revenue of over USD 260 million with an operating income of USD 12 million and a net income of USD 13 million in 2020. The company got listed on the stock exchanges the same year in Aug 2020. Later, it emerged as the second-largest healthcare company in India in terms of revenue.
Kayak Investments, meanwhile, is an affiliate of global private equity fund KKR, which had also divested part of its holdings last year.
On the other hand, KKR is an American global investment and asset management company specializing in private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, etc. It’s capital markets business
arranges debt and equity transactions for firms, portfolio companies, and third parties all over the world.