Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is close to pulling out of Aditya Birla Group firm UltraTech Cement by selling its entire 11.5% stake, bringing the curtains down on a six-year-old relationship. A person close to the development said Citi, advisor to L&T for the transaction, sold 10 million shares (8.3% stake) through a series of off-market deals late on Wednesday evening.

According to the person, the series of transactions were done at Rs 720-735 a share, lower than UltraTech’s closing price of Rs 763 on the BSE on Wednesday. At this price, L&T would be able to earn around Rs 1,000 crore from the deal.

A clutch of domestic mutual funds, insurance companies and foreign institutional investors bought the shares in small parcels — less than 1% stake each. Although their identity could not be ascertained, it is learnt that the list of bidders include ICICI Prudential MF, Bajaj Life Insurance, Fidelity, SBI Life, SBI MF, Birla Sun Life Insurance, LIC, Blackstone and Oppenheimer.

The Birlas enjoy the right of first refusal on L&T’s holding under an agreement it had entered into with the engineering giant in 2003. The pact also made it clear that in case the Birlas do not exercise their right, L&T has the liberty to sell its shares in small tranches to financial investors. However, L&T is not allowed to sell the shares to strategic investors.

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