Key Points
London's British American Tobacco (BAT) on Wednesday likely sold a 3.5% stake in FMCG major ITC at an average selling price of Rs 404.40 per share in block deals to institutional investors..
BAT, which makes Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes, sold 43.68 crore shares after which its shareholding in ITC fell down to 25.5% from 29%..
With this transaction BAT can accelerate the start of a sustainable buyback, while enabling us to continue to deleverage towards a new target range of 2-2.5x adjusted net debt / adjusted EBITDA," BAT CEO Tadeu Marroco said in a statement...
Goldman Sachs has maintained its buy rating on ITC with a target price of Rs 480 on the back of improving FMCG profitability and steady recovery in in cigarette profit...
ITCs FMCG EBITDA margin is expected to increase to ~12% by FY27E from ~9% in FY22," Goldman said.. CLSA has upgraded ITC to buy from outperform earlier but slashed the target price to Rs 468 from Rs 486 saying that cigarette volumes are likely to be muted but premiumisation is underway...
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London selling sparks Rs 43,000-crore rally: What BAT stake sale means for ITC shareholders
13, Mar, 24The stake sale in ITC is good news also because BAT is now unlikely to sell more shares in near future for it doesn't want its shareholding in ITC to fall below 25%. BAT's ownership in ITC has now fallen to 25.5% from 29% earlier.