British American Tobacco (BAT) on Friday sold a 9% stake in ITC Hotels for Rs 3,820 crore, cutting its holding in the company to 6.3% from 15.3% earlier.
In a regulatory filing on Friday, the maker of Dunhill and Lucky Strike said it had completed the block trade of 187.5 million shares in ITC Hotels with investors by way of an accelerated book-building process. The share sale is higher than the 145.8 million shares BAT had sought to sell as per a term sheet viewed by FE on Thursday.
The floor price remains at Rs 205.65 apiece, which is a 1% discount to ITC Hotels’ Thursday closing price on the BSE. The stock was down 0.84% at the end of trade on Friday at Rs 206 apiece.
What drove BAT to sell its stake
BAT’s move to monetise its holding in ITC Hotels is part of an effort to bring down its debt. This is the third time in two years that BAT has pared its stake in ITC group companies.
In March 2024 and May 2025, BAT had trimmed its stake in ITC by 3.5% and 2.5% each, bringing its shareholding down to 22.9% in the cigarette-to-FMCG company. It had also relinquished its veto rights in the firm. ITC has a 39.85% stake in ITC Hotels.
What did BAT CEO say?
While informing about the plan to sell stake in ITC Hotels, BAT Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tadeu Luiz Marroco said that the direct shareholding in ITC Hotels was a result of the demerger process that was completed by ITC earlier this year.
He added that a direct stake in ITC Hotels was not a strategic holding for BAT. He said that the proceeds from the transaction would support progress towards its 2026 deleveraging plan.