American PE firm KKR sells SBI Life stake

KKR, American private equity major, has sold one-third of SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd through a block deal on the market, according to the data from stock exchange. Value Line Pte Ltd, an affiliate of KKR that held the shares, has sold 6.5 million shares at a price of Rs 775 apiece. The sale will fetch KKR Rs 503.7 crore. Before the sale KKR held 1.95% shares in the company. In December 2016, the firm had acquired the SBI Life stake, when it, along with Singapore state-owned investor Temasek bought 19.5 million shares each in the insurance company from its promoter State Bank of India for a total of Rs 1,800 crore. Both KKR and Temasek had bought the shares at a price of Rs 460 per share. The stake sale to these investors was a precursor to the initial public offering of the company. In September 2017, SBI Life went public in an IPO that saw its promoters SBI and BNP Paribas Cardif sell shares worth Rs 8,400 crore.