BAT ‘very happy’ with current holding, stubs hope of more stake sale; ITC trades flat

ITC shares traded flat early on March 15 after its largest shareholder, British American Tobacco, ruled out any further stake sale in the diversified conglomerate.

BAT chief executive Tadeu Marroco said he is not looking to dilute any further stake, since BAT wants to retain an influence in the ITC board along with its plans for the future.

“ITC is transforming itself, making a number of investments and divesting the hotel business which we supported. We want to have a say in those decisions. We are very happy to keep our shareholding on that level,” Marroco said at a UBS conference.

At 9.20am, shares of ITC were quoting Rs 419.05 on the NSE, lower by 0.1 percent.

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On March 13, BAT sold 43.7 crore shares of the diversified conglomerate at Rs 400 per share, for a total of Rs 17,491 crore in a block deal, trimming down its holding in ITC to 25.5 percent.

As of December 2023, BAT owned around 29 percent stake in ITC. BAT became invested initially in the stock during the 1900s. London-based British American Tobacco (BAT) makes and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products.

In a note, BAT said that it intends to use the net proceeds of the sale to buy back BAT shares over a period ending December 2025, “starting with £700 million in 2024”. “We will continue to allocate operating cash flow to fund investment in our transformation and to further deleverage,” the note added.

So far in 2024, the ITC stock is lower by around 10.5 percent. In comparison, the frontline index, Nifty 50 has risen about 3 percent during the same time period.

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