Aster DM Healthcare block deal: PE firm Olympus planning $100-mn stake sale with upsize option

The floor price for the proposed trade was Rs 331/share, a 7.1 percent discount to the last closing price.

Private equity firm Olympus is in stake sale mode again in Aster DM Healthcare, and is looking to offload 5 percent via a block deal of around $100 million, sources in the know told Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.

"The block deal has been launched with an upsize option of an additional 5 percent stake. Based on demand, this could potentially be a $200-million clean up trade with Olympus selling its entire balance 10.1 percent stake," said one of the persons above.

A second person told Moneycontrol that the floor price for the proposed trade was Rs 331/share, a 7.1 percent discount to the last closing price. He added Kotak Securities is acting as the advisor on the deal.

Olympus and Kotak Securities couldn't be reached for an immediate comment.

According to exchange filings, Olympus Capital Asia Investments Ltd holds 10.10 percent stake in Aster DM Healthcare.

Back in March, Olympus had sold around 9.8 percent stake in Aster DM in a block deal of around $235 million.

On September 20, 2022, Moneycontrol was the first to report that Aster DM Healthcare had launched a big-bang internal rejig exercise to unlock value and had tapped Gulf funds and sovereign funds to sell stake in its carved-out Middle East business.

Then in November, Aster DM Healthcare approved the sale of its Middle East or GCC (Gulf Co-Operation Council) business to Alpha GCC Holdings Ltd for an equity value of a billion dollars.

The promoter family currently holds 41.88 per cent stake in Aster DM Healthcare.

Post the announcement of the GCC deal, when asked if the firm would be open to sell a majority stake in the India business as well, Dr Azad Moopen, Chairman, Aster DM Healthcare said, " If it's a very good partner who comes in and we have the strategic benefit of having a team and we have the knowledge, then we are okay to go with not a majority stake, but we can go with a joint control and things like that. We can definitely discuss about that."