SoftBank trims stake in Ola Electric, shares close 6% down

Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank on Thursday said it has disposed of 9.5 crore equity shares of Ola Electric through its investment arm SVF II OSTRICH (DE) LLC.

The stake sale happened through multiple open-market transactions between July 15 and September 2, according to documents filed with the stock exchanges.

According to the filing, the September 2 disposal breached the 2% threshold mandated under SEBI’s regulations.

The Masayoshi Son-led firm has diluted its stake in Ola Electric to 15.68% and currently holds 69.16 crore equity shares in the EV maker, down from 78.7 crore equity shares or a 17.83% stake earlier.

In June this year, South Korean automotive major Hyundai Motor offloaded its stake in Ola Electric, exiting the firm by selling shares worth Rs 552 crore in an open-market transaction.

Another South Korean automotive manufacturer, Kia Corporation, also sold around 2.71 crore shares of Ola Electric in an open-market transaction on the same day, at an average price of Rs 50.55 per share, valuing the deal at Rs 137.3 crore.

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SoftBank's stake sale comes over a year after the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company listed on public bourses. Ola Electric has been battling a narrowing market share and mounting losses.

The company also undertook two rounds of layoffs, letting go of between 450 and 500 people in November last year and around 1,000 employees in March this year.

Shares of the company closed down 6% at Rs 64.59 apiece on BSE. The company’s shares are down 19.9% year-to-date.

After a series of high-profile bets in India, including Swiggy, Ola Electric, and FirstCry, SoftBank has now turned its focus to backing artificial intelligence startups, including ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, as part of Project Stargate.

(Disclaimer: Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory, is an independent director in Ola Electric)