Kayak Investments Holding Pte, an affiliate of global private equity fund KKR, has sold almost all its holding in Max Healthcare. On Tuesday, Kayak sold 26.01 crore shares, representing 27 per cent stake in the company, at ₹ 353 per share in two bulk deals on the BSE. It was a deal worth more than ₹9,184 crore.

The shares were collectively picked up by the Government of Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore, BNP Paribas Arbitrage Fund and WF Asian Reconnaissance Fund, Smaller Cap World Fund and a few others, data on the BSE website showed.

Bulk deals

It is one of the largest bulk deals in the Indian markets in the past few months, analysts said. The share price of Max Healthcare rose by 9.72 per cent to close at ₹396.70 on the BSE.

As of June 2021, Kayak held 456.3 million shares, totalling 47.24 per cent stake in Max Healthcare. The fund has been diluting the stake over the past one year. Shares sold by the fund earlier were acquired by SBI Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and Veritas Funds, amongst others. In March this year, Kayak Investment sold 10 per cent of Max Healthcare for nearly ₹3,300 crore.

In 2018, KKR along with Mumbai-headquartered Radiant had acquired a 49.70 per cent stake in Max Healthcare from South Africa-based Life Healthcare Group Holdings, an equal joint venture partner in Max Healthcare Institute along with Max India, for about ₹2,120 crore. KKR-Radiant had acquired more than 266 million shares in Max Healthcare at ₹80 per share through the deal.

KKR’s exit plans follow its closure of a $4-billion Health Care Strategic Growth fund in January, which focused on biopharmaceutical, medical devices, healthcare services, life science tools, diagnostics, and healthcare information technology sub-sectors.

Max Healthcare Institute operates 17 facilities, with more than 3,400 beds, across the NCR Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra. Apart from hospitals, Max Healthcare also operates a homecare business and pathology business under brand names Max@Home and Max Labs, respectively.

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