PB Fintech sells over 1% stake for ₹920 cr via open market transactions

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PB Fintech's co-founders Yashish Dahiya and Alok Bansal divested a little over 1 per cent stake in the company for ₹920 crore through open market transactions.

PB Fintech's chief executive Dahiya and Vice Chairman Bansal sold a total of 50.50 lakh shares or 1.09 per cent stake in the company.

PB Fintech is the parent of insurtech platform Policybazaar and fintech platform Paisabazar.

According to the block deal data on the NSE, Ashish Dahiya offloaded a total of 34 lakh shares in two tranches, amounting to a 0.74 per cent stake in PB Fintech.

In addition, Alok Bansal sold 16.50 lakh shares or 0.36 per cent holding in Gurugram-based PB Fintech, as per the data.

The combined transaction was valued at around ₹919.86 crore, executed at an average price of ₹1,821.50 apiece.

After the stake sale, Dahiya's holding in PB Fintech declined to 3.57 per cent from 4.31 per cent, and Bansal's stake fell to 1.04 per cent from 1.40 per cent.

Meanwhile, the shares were picked up by a domestic mutual fund entity, insurance companies, and foreign investors.

The entities that purchased stake are Tata Mutual Fund, Edelweiss Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, and Mumbai-based Subhkam Ventures.

The US-based Ghisallo Capital Management, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore, Societe Generale, WFM Asia, System Two Adviso₹and Hong-Kong-based investment manager Viridian AM also bought shares of PB Fintech.

Shares of PB Fintech fell 0.53 per cent to settle at ₹1,830 apiece on the NSE.

In May last year, Dahiya and Bansal divested a 1.8 per cent stake in PB Fintech for ₹1,109 crore.

In Jun 2022, Dahiya offloaded nearly 38 lakh shares of the company for ₹230 crore. In February, Bansal divested over 28 lakh shares of the company for ₹236 crore.

PB Fintech came out with its ₹5,710-crore initial public offering in November 2021. The company's co-founders and other shareholders had reduced their stake in the public issue.