Global investment firm Alpha Wave Ventures LP is looking to offload a stake of up to 1.6% in omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions through a block deal, sources told CNBC-TV18. The base offer size has been pegged at ₹966 crore, representing approximately 0.9% of the company’s total equity.
The offer includes an upsize option to divest an additional 0.7% stake worth ₹725 crore, which could take the total transaction value to ₹1,691 crore. The floor price for the transaction has been fixed at ₹640 per share, which translates to a discount of 5.56% to the stock's closing price on the National Stock Exchange on Friday, October 9, where shares settled at ₹676.80.
The seller will be subject to a 30-day lock-in period on any further sale of shares. This marks another round of stake reduction by institutional backers in Lenskart in recent months. In late August, Alpha Wave Ventures sold 2.95 crore shares, or a 1.7% equity stake in the company, for ₹1,857 crore at an average price of ₹630 per share.
Institutional investors, including the National Pension System , ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, and WhiteOak Capital Mutual Fund, acquired shares in that transaction. The development follows a series of large block trades in the stock. On September 21, approximately 3.6 crore shares, or 2.07% equity of Lenskart Solutions worth ₹2,468 crore, changed hands at ₹688 per share after Platinum Jasmine A 2018 Trust, an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority , moved to trim its holding.
Prior to that, on August 24, SoftBank Vision Fund II sold 4.5 crore shares, representing a 2.59% stake, for ₹2,887.9 crore at ₹641.75 per share, with Societe Generale among the buyers. For the first quarter, Lenskart reported a surge in consolidated net profit to ₹222 crore compared to ₹60 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Revenue for the period rose 43.3% to ₹2,714.2 crore from ₹1,894.5 crore. Shares of Lenskart Solutions closed 3.49% higher at ₹676.80 on Friday, October 9, and have gained 54.3% year-to-date.