Temasek joins ADIA, SoftBank in trimming Lenskart stake with ₹1,940 crore block deal

Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek has sold a 2% stake in Peyush Bansal-led Lenskart Solutions Ltd through an open-market transaction on 10 July, according to a stock exchange notification dated 14 July.

The transaction, worth an estimated ₹1,940 crore (around $200 million), was executed through its subsidiary MacRitchie Investments Pte. Following the sale, Temasek's holding in the eyewear retailer declined to 4.75% from 6.8%.

On 10 July, Lenskart's stock closed at ₹543.65 on the National Stock Exchange.

Temasek first invested in Lenskart in July 2021, leading a $220 million funding round alongside Falcon Edge Capital (now Alpha Wave Global). The funding round valued the eyewear retailer at $2.5 billion.

Investor exits

July's stake sale follows a series of secondary-market sell-downs in Lenskart over the past two months.

Mint reported on 10 June that Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund had launched a secondary share sale in Lenskart to raise up to ₹1,944 crore. Earlier, on 3 June, a SoftBank entity sold a 3.25% stake through a block deal worth ₹2,873 crore.

Before that, multiple block deals on 8 May saw investors including TR Capital, KKR-backed Birdseye View Holdings, Alpha Wave Ventures and ABG Capital divest a combined 6.46% stake for ₹5,314 crore at ₹473.4 per share.

The 8 May transactions came soon after the expiry of the six-month shareholder lock-in following the company's public listing.

According to Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research, the lock-in expiry made nearly 1,047.4 million shares eligible for trading. Together, these shares accounted for around 60% of the company's outstanding equity and were valued at approximately ₹51,573 crore, based on the closing price on 7 May.

This also marks Temasek's second $200-million listed Indian equity transaction this month. On 3 July, the investor sold a 2.4% stake in PB Fintech, raising approximately the same amount.

Financial performance

In the March quarter, Lenskart's net profit declined 9% year-on-year to ₹200 crore despite a 46% jump in revenue from operations to ₹2,516 crore. The company is yet to announce its June quarter earnings.

As India's primary markets prepare for a fresh wave of large IPOs, secondary markets are increasingly providing institutional investors with liquidity opportunities.

Apart from the Lenskart transactions, GQG Partners sold a stake worth ₹1,906 crore in GMR Airports through open-market deals in June. The month also witnessed stake sales in companies including SoftBank-backed Meesho Ltd, jewellery retailer Bluestone Jewellery and Lifestyle Ltd, Groww parent Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd, Capital Small Finance Bank and logistics platform Delhivery Ltd.