Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund has launched a secondary share sale in Lenskart Solutions Ltd to raise up to ₹1,944 crore (around $204 million), according to a term sheet seen by Mint.
Platinum Jasmine A 2018 Trust, an investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, is offering up to 40 million shares, representing approximately 2.3% of the eyewear retailer's total outstanding equity. The offer floor price is set at ₹486 per share, representing a 2.8% discount to the stock's BSE closing price of ₹500.15 on 10 June.
The wealth fund invested $500 million in Lenskart in March 2023 at a valuation of around $4.5 billion.
IIFL Capital Services Ltd is acting as the sole broker and placement agent for the transaction, as set out in the term sheet. The order book opened on 10 June and is scheduled to close on the morning of 11 June, with trade execution expected later that day and settlement on 12 June.
The seller, a public shareholder which currently holds 11.99% stake in the company as of March-end 2026, will be subject to a 90-day lock-up period on its residual holding.
This transaction follows multiple secondary-market liquidations at Lenskart over the past month. On 3 June, a SoftBank entity executed a block deal involving a 3.25% equity stake valued at ₹2,873 crore. Prior to that sell-down, multiple block deal transactions on 8 May saw major investors such as 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 sales coincided with the expiration of the six-month lock-in period following the company's public listing.
According to Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research, the expiry of the six-month shareholder lock-in made nearly 1047.4 million shares eligible for trading. These shares, in total, accounted for around 60% of the company's outstanding equity and were valued at approximately ₹51,573 crore based on the 7 May closing price.
In the March quarter, Lenskart saw its net profit fall 9% year-on-year to ₹200 crore. This was despite a 46% surge in revenue from operations, which rose to ₹2,516 crore over the same period.
Bulk deals at multi-year high
Mint reported on 24 April that with high interest rates, valuation gaps, and global upheavals weighing on traditional mergers and acquisitions (M&A), promoters and institutional investors are turning to the secondary market. This drove block and bulk deals to a multi-year high in January-April despite bearish sentiment.
A total of ₹1.1 trillion changed hands in open-market trades this year (as of 15 April), up 25% from ₹86,810 crore in the year-ago period. Even in May, secondary-market sales continued to keep bookbuilders busy: Other than Lenskart's deal, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd saw a ₹7,486 crore secondary sale on 4 May, followed by Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd's ₹5,326 crore offering soon after, and One97 Communications Ltd's ₹964 crore sale on 22 May.