Carlyle sheds 13% stake in Metropolis Healthcare

CA Lotus Investments, an investment arm of Carlyle group, sold 65.51 lakh shares of Metropolis Healthcare through a bulk deal on the BSE. The offer size is 13.06 per cent of the outstanding share capital of Metropolis. Currently, CA Lotus holds 71.79 lakh shares or 14.31 per cent stake in the company.

CA Lotus sold 32.76 lakh shares and 32.75 lakh shares in two separate deals at average prices of ₹1,152.64 and ₹1,152.2 respectively. Of this, Smallcap World Fund bought 10 lakh shares. However, the name of the other buyer was not readily available.

The company had earlier fixed the floor price of the issue at ₹1,110 a share, which is a 17 per cent discount to the last closing share price of Metropolis on Monday at ₹1,337.55. Following this, the stock price of Metropolis crashed 14 per cent to ₹1,152.5 in initial trades, but bounced back after the the deal was executed.

The stock, on Wednesday, finally closed at ₹1,258.96, down 6.3 per cent, over the previous day’s close.

It may be recalled that the PE firm sold 74.12 lakh shares through Metropolis Healthcare’s IPO that had hit the market last April. Through the sale, Carlyle had raised about ₹650 crore.

The PE firm had acquired the stake in 2015 by buying out GSK Velu, the former co-promoter of Metropolis.