Rakesh Jhunjhunwala offloads 2.67% stake in Titan Company

Share sale may have fetched over Rs 10 billion

Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has offloaded 2.67 per cent stake in Titan Company, a Tata group company. Between May 22 and June 28, Jhunjhunwala and eight other connected entities have offloaded around 12.5 million shares for around Rs 10.8 billion. Over half of these shares were sold on Thursday, as per a disclosure made to BSE. Shares of Titan on Thursday closed at Rs 838, down 3.6 per cent. Shares of Titan have come off by around 10 per cent amid the stake sale by Jhunjhunwala.

Titan, which is into jewellery and watch retailing, is the top holdings for Jhunjhunwala, who holds shares worth $2 billion in over a dozen companies. The stake sale in Titan comes at a time when stocks, particularly in the small and midcap space, are undergoing tremendous selling pressure.

Following the share sale, the shareholding of Jhunjhunwala, along with eight other entities, has dropped to 65.45 million (7.37 per cent stake) from 77.95 million (8.78 per cent) on May 21.

Jhunjhunwala has been a stakeholder in Titan for more than a decade. On April 12, 2007, Jhunjhunwala held 10 per cent stake in the company. Back then the share price of Titan (on an adjusted basis) was around Rs 40. Shares of Titan have given annualized returns of 30 per cent since April 2007. In comparison, the benchmark Sensex has given annualized returns of only 9 per cent.