BNP Paribas Cardif offloads 5% in SBI Life via open market sale

BNP Paribas Cardif, the French insurer, has sold a 5 per cent stake, or a little over 50 million shares, in private sector life insurer SBI Life for Rs 4,556.7 crore at Rs 911 a share in an open market sale.

In a disclosure to exchanges, SBI Life said the foreign promoter of the company sold 4.99 per cent, equivalent to 5,00,03,480 equity shares on March 12, 2021, through the open market process.

With this, the shareholding of the French insurer has come down to 0.2 per cent in SBI Life.

Before the sale of shares, BNP Paribas Cardif held 5.2 per cent stake in SBI Life, with the country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), the promoter of the company, holding more than 55 per cent stake. Among the buyers, the government of Singapore bought 1.68 per cent stake for Rs 1,533.5 crore at Rs 915 a share. And, BNP Paribas Arbitrage bought 0.9 per cent for Rs 820 crore at Rs 910 per share.

Shares of SBI Life closed at Rs 913.90, down 2.78 per cent on the BSE.