ITC Hotels Block Deals: HCL Capital Rs. 2,998 crore worth of shares withdrawn; ADIA, Morgan Stanley join marquee buyers

HCL Capital Pvt Ltd has emerged as the largest acquirer of British American Tobacco’s (BAT) stake in ITC Hotels. An NBFC company linked to Shiv Nadar’s HCL Group on Friday through a block deal of Rs. 2,998 crore worth 14.58 crore shares were bought. In separate block deals, marquee investors Nippon India Mutual Fund, Societe Generale, Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), BNP Paribas and Vanguard Group also took significant stakes.

Rs. 3,856 crore block deal saw BAT’s wholly-owned subsidiaries, Tobacco Manufacturers (India) Ltd, Middleton Investment Company Ltd and Rothmans International Enterprises Ltd sell the ordinary share capital issued in the ITC promoted company. Between them they sold 18.75 crore shares.

Tobacco Manufacturers India raised Rs. 12.34 crore shares were sold at a corner of 2,537.17 crore. Mydelta has Rs. 1,000 crore sold 4.86 crore shares while Rothmans International Enterprises sold Rs. 1.55 crore shares were sold at a deal size of 319 crores.

Block Deals Details:

– HCL Capital

HCL Capital, where Shiv Nadar’s wife Kiran Nadar and daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra are non-executive director and director and chairperson respectively, closed on NSE on Thursday at Rs. 207.72, 1% lower than Rs. The shares were bought at a price of 205.65.

– Nippon India MF raised Rs. 530 crore bought 2.57 crore shares.

– Societe Generale Rs. Bought 21.60 lakh shares for 44.42 core.

– Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore Pte bought 9.16 lakh shares for Rs 19 crore.

— BNP Paribas Arbitrage bought 42.06 lakh shares at Rs. Buys at 205.65 = deal size = 86.50 crores

– ADIA has paid Rs. Bought 6 lakh shares for 12.34 crores.

– Vanguard Group Rs. 166 crores bought 80.67 lakh shares.

BAT announced the block deal on Thursday. It said the funds raised will help the company transition to its target leverage range of 2-2.5x adjusted net debt/adjusted EBITDA (ex-Canada) by end-2026.

Commenting on the development, BAT chief executive Tadeu Marocco said the company’s direct shareholding in ITC Hotels was a result of the demerger process completed by ITC earlier this year. “As stated earlier, a direct stake in ITC Hotels is not a strategic holding for BAT, therefore, I am pleased that the proceeds from this transaction will support further progress towards our 2026 leverage corridor,” he added.

Established in 1975, the ITC Hotels business has grown to encompass over 140 hotels in 90+ locations across the Indian subcontinent.

Following the demerger of ITC Limited, ITC Hotels is trading as a public listed entity from January 2025. As a result of its shareholding in ITC at the time of demerger, BAT holds approximately 15.3% shareholding in ITC Hotels.

The shares traded on BSE on January 29, 2025 at Rs. 188 and on NSE Rs. 180 at around Rs. Listed at a market capitalization of Rs 39,000 crore. The listing price was earlier lower by the Street during a special price-discovery session on January 6 where the stock traded on the Nifty at around Rs. 260 and on BSE indices around Rs. 270 was assigned a price.

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