Ola founders get CCI approval to increase stake in ANI Technologies

Competition watchdog also okays the sale of Star Health to SafeCrop

Competition watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday said in a tweet that it had approved the proposal of Ola founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati to increase their stake in ANI Technologies, which owns the app-based cab aggregator.

The acquisition of a 6.72 per cent stake will be made through Singapore-incorporated Lazarus Holdings, a special purpose vehicle to be used as an investment holding company. 

Earlier last month, Aggarwal, Bhati and MacRitchie through Lazarus had proposed to buy shares from certain existing shareholders of ANI and sought CCI’s approval for this. MacRitchie Investments is an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings.

Meanwhile, in a separate decision, CCI also cleared the 100 per cent acquisition of Star Health & Allied Insurance Company Ltd by SafeCrop Holdings and others. 

The insurance company will be sold to SafeCrop, a consortium of WestBridge AIF, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Madison, and all its existing shareholders will exit.

The existing shareholders of Star Health include Star Health Investments Pvt. Ltd and funds managed/or advised by ICICI Venture, Tata Capital and Apis Partners. The health insurer has about 11,000 employees.

Declining to share any financial and non-financial details, Star Health Chairman and Managing Director V Jagannathan had told IANS in August: "I am very happy with the deal… We have started from a humble beginning and have come to this level with an excellent team work. We feel new investors, with their abundance experience and golden touch, will enable the company to scale further heights.”