ITC Hotels block deals: HCL Capital snaps up Rs 2,998 crore worth shares; ADIA, Morgan Stanley join marquee buyers

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

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

Tobacco Manufacturers India sold 12.34 crore shares at cornering Rs 2,537.17 crore from the stake sale. Myddelton sold 4.86 crore shares for Rs 1,000 crore while Rothmans International Enterprises offloaded 1.55 crore shares at a del size to the tune of Rs 319 crore.

Details of block deals:

— HCL Capital

HCL Capital, where Shiv Nadar’s wife Kiran Nadar and daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra are Non-executive Director and Director & Chairperson, respectively, bought shares at a price of Rs 205.65 apiece, 1% lower from the Thursday closing price of Rs 207.72 on the NSE. — Nippon India MF bought over 2.57 crore shares for Rs 530 crore.— Societe Generale bought 21.60 lakh shares for Rs 44.42 core.

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

— BNP Paribas Arbitrage BUYs 42.06 lakh shares at Rs 205.65 apiece = Deal size = 86.50 crore

— ADIA bought 6 lakh shares at Rs 12.34 crore.

— Vanguard Group purchased 80.67 lakh shares at Rs 166 crore.

BAT had announced the block deal on Thursday. It said that 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’s Chief Executive Tadeu Marroco said that company’s direct shareholding in ITC Hotels was a result of the demerger process that was completed by ITC earlier this year. “As previously stated, a direct stake in ITC Hotels is not a strategic holding for BAT, therefore, I am pleased that the proceeds from this transaction will further support continued progress towards our stated 2026 leverage corridor,” he added.

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

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

The shares were listed on January 29, 2025 on the BSE at Rs 188 and at Rs 180 on NSE at a market capitalisation of about Rs 39,000 crore. The listing price was lower than what the Street had given earlier on January 6 during a special price-discovery session in which the stock was assigned a value of around Rs 260 on Nifty and about Rs 270 on BSE indices.

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