Pantaloon Retail rises on talk of stake sale in insurance JV

Pantaloon Retail (India) is trading higher by 5% to Rs 203 on reports that L&T Finance Holdings is close to buying out the company’s stake in the general insurance joint venture (JV) Future Generali India Insurance Company.

Future Generali is a JV between Kishore Biyani’s Future Group and the Generali Group of Italy. The Future Group owns 74% stake in the company while the Italian insurer owns 26%.

“Pantaloon Retail, which directly via special purpose vehicles, holds 50% stake is monetising its insurance exposure will further deleverage its balance sheet,” The Economic Times report suggests.

The stock opened at Rs 195 and hit a high of Rs 204 on the BSE. As many as a combined 4.5 million shares have already changed hands on the counter so far against an average 4.2 million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks.