Warburg Pincus sells 6.2% stake in Kalyan Jewellers for Rs 724 cr; Franklin Templeton, Nomura emerge buyers

According to bulk deals data available with the exchanges, Warburg Pincus has offloaded 6.4 crore shares or 6.22% stake in the company at a price of Rs 113 apiece. Through the stake sale, Warburg has earned Rs 724 crore.

Among the buyers were two domestic investors BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Franklin Templeton MF, and one foreign investor Nomura.

While BNP Paribas has picked up 1.67 crore shares or 1.63% stake, Franklin MF has bought 86 lakh units. Nomura, through its India Investment Fund, has lapped up 85 lakh shares in the company.

According to the shareholding pattern available with the exchanges, Kalyan Jewellers is a majority promoter-owned company with 60.55% stake, while the rest is held by public shareholders. Among public shareholders, mutual funds have a partly 2% stake.

This is the second time in this year that Warburg Pincus has sold a stake in Kalyan Jewellers, with the earlier one being 2.26% sale in March.

As of March, Warburg Pincus held about 23.82% in the company. The PE firm owned about 27.1 crore shares or 26.36% stake in the company, as of December 2022.Kalyan Jewellers was listed in March 2021, when Warburg Pincus sold a stake worth Rs 250 crore in the company. While the PE firm had initially planned to sell a stake worth Rs 500 crore in the public offering, it later cut down the size of its share sale. Ahead of its initial public offering, Warburg held a 32% stake in the company.

The PE fund had invested Rs 1,200 crore in the jeweller in two tranches — Rs 700 crore in 2014, and a second tranche of Rs 500 crore in 2017.

On Friday, Kalyan Jewellers shares rallied nearly 17% to Rs 133.80. So far this year, the stock is up about 7%. Since the listing, the shares have offered 78% returns to investors.