Kotak Mahindra Bank to divest 200 million shares of Airtel Payments Bank

Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited said that it has signed a share purchase agreement to divest 200 million equity shares of Airtel Payments Bank Limited (APBL) to Bharti Enterprises Limited for INR 294.8 crores in cash.

The sale price per share is INR 14.74 per equity share of Airtel Payments Bank, which will be determined in accordance with the terms of the share purchase agreement.

The Indian private sector banking group had acquired the shares during the calendar years 2016 and 2017 for an aggregated consideration of INR 200 crores.

Kotak Mahindra Bank to sell 200 million shares of Airtel Payments Bank to Bharti Enterprises Limited for Rs 295cr. Photo courtesy of Indrajit Das/Wikipedia.org.

Airtel Payments Bank is a payments bank, which is duly licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to undertake the activities permitted under the license.

Kotak Mahindra Bank said that the deal does not need any governmental or regulatory approvals and that Bharti Enterprises Limited has secured ‘No Objection’ from the RBI to enable the execution of the proposed deal.

The deal is expected to be wrapped up by 15 September 2021.