SoftBank has been, in recent times, looking to wind down its investments in India. Recently, it offloaded large quantities of its holdings in Paytm and PolicyBazaar along those lines. And now, four years after it first invested in Delhivery – with a total of $315 million at that time – the Japanese conglomerate has reportedly sold off shares worth ₹600 crore in the Indian logistics and supply chain upstart.
According to media reports, in an early trade this morning, a total of 3.8% of stake amounting to nearly 2.8 crore shares, were sold in a block deal, confirming earlier reports of a block deal sell out by Softbank. The block deals concluded today, are expected to first among many, and it is likely that SoftBank will consider upsizing if the deals see strong demand. There has been no official disclosures on the block deal so far.
The reports further suggest that SoftBank may offload Delhivery’s shares at a discount of 3-5% to the current market price. The shares of the Gurugram-based logistics and supply chain firm rose initially dropped at the execution of block deal, but are trading 0.75% up, at the time of publishing this story. This brings the overall gain of Delhivery shares in February to 15%, marking the second instance of clocking returns in double digits a month ever since it was listed on the bourses in June 2022. Investment bank and financial services company Citigroup has been chosen as the broker for the deal.
The development makes SoftBank the latest firm to wind down or exit its investments in the South-Asian country and comes a week after investment firm Tiger Global sold a 1.7% stake in Delhivery. Tiger Global’s sale was estimated at ₹414 crores. The PE giant held a 4.68% stake in Delhivery (as of December 2022). SoftBank continues to remain the largest private stakeholder in the logistics firm. It held a total stake of 18.42% (via its subsidiary Svf Doorbell (Cayman) Ltd.)
In its recently announced results for the quarter that ended December 2022, Delhivery reported an increase in its net loss to ₹195.7 crores (as compared to a net loss of ₹127 crores from the corresponding quarter in the earlier year). Its operating revenue clocked a drop of 8.5% to drop to ₹1823.8 crores as well (as compared to ₹2019 crores in the December quarter of 2021). The widening losses of listed and unlisted Indian firms alike have hurt high-profile investors such as SoftBank, and in recent months, the Japanese conglomerate offloaded its stakes in Paytm and PB Fintech. It sold 4.5% of its stake in Paytm in November 2022 and over 5% in PB Fintech a month later.
