Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Sells Stake Worth ₹ 1,876 Cr in Asian Paints

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries on Monday sold 85 lakh shares of Asian Paints for ₹ 1,876 crore via an open market transaction. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate, through its affiliate Siddhant Commercials disposed of 85 lakh shares, representing a 0.88 per cent stake in Asian Paints, said the company in a statement on the national stock exchange (NSE). The move by the conglomerate comes at a time when the country’s largest paint maker is on the radar of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for potential antitrust violation. 

The development comes just days after Reliance Industries offloaded 3.50 crore equity shares or 3.64 per cent stake in Mumbai-based Asian Paints on Thursday.

The shares were sold at an average price of ₹ 2,207 apiece, taking the transaction value to ₹ 1,875.95 crore. Meanwhile, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund (MF) bought these shares at the same price. With the acquisition of shares, ICICI Prudential MF's holding in Asian Paints increased to 2.12 per cent from 1.24 per cent.

Asian Paints has come under the antitrust body’s radar after a complaint was raised by KM Birla-led Aditya Birla Group’s Birla Opus in November last year. Birla Opus accused Asian Paints of having misused its market dominance. It alleged that Asian Paints, which has 53% market share, had indulged in anti-competitive conduct and exclusionary practices, including limiting dealers from doing business with Grasim’s Birla Opus. The KM Birla-led company alleged that Asian Paints had pressurised raw material suppliers to deny supplies or discriminate on price against Birla Opus. 

But KM Birla-led company isn’t the only one that has accused Asian Paints of misusing its leadership position. Earlier, Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Paints had alleged that the market leader had coerced enterprises that provided infrastructure facilities to them to not stock JSW Paints’ products.