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Prudential to Sell Up to 2% Stake in ICICI Prudential AMC to Meet India Float Rules

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Prudential to Sell Up to 2% Stake in ICICI Prudential AMC to Meet India Float Rules

Prudential (HKG:2378) plans to sell up to a 2% stake in ICICI Prudential Asset Management (NSE:ICICIAMC, BOM:544658) to help the Indian asset manager meet minimum public shareholding requirements.

Prudential Corporation, a subsidiary of the UK-based insurer and one of ICICI Prudential AMC's promoters, will sell up to 9.9 million shares through the open market on Aug. 27, according to an exchange filing on Wednesday.

The proposed sale represents up to 2% of ICICI Prudential AMC's issued and paid-up equity share capital.

While Prudential and ICICI Prudential Asset did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, local media reports said, citing a term sheet, that the block deal represented a 2% to 7% discount to the company's Wednesday closing price.

Based on the closing price of 3,222.80 rupees on the National Stock Exchange of India, the shares are worth about 29.6 billion rupees to 31.2 billion rupees, according to' calculation. Without any discount, the base value of the shares is roughly 31.9 billion rupees.

Prudential Corporation currently forms part of a promoter group that holds 87.6% of the company, with the aggregate holding expected to fall to 85.6% after the sale.

The sale is intended to support ICICI Prudential AMC's compliance with India's minimum public shareholding requirement.

Prudential said its stake in the asset manager will fall to 32.6% after the transaction, while its governance rights in the company will remain unchanged.

Prudential's stake sale is expected to take place in one or more tranches on Aug. 27.

Prudential previously sold shares in ICICI Prudential AMC through the asset manager's initial public offering and pre-IPO placement.

The company said the latest transaction is being undertaken specifically to support the listed asset manager's public-float requirements.

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