Bhavish Aggarwal sells portion of Ola Electric stake to repay Rs 260 Cr loan
Aggarwal had previously pledged his shares in the EV-maker to fund his artificial intelligence venture, Krutrim.
Ola Electric’s Bhavish Aggarwal on Tuesday sold 2.6 crore shares of the EV-maker through a bulk deal, cashing in Rs 91 crore, exchange data showed. The transaction was undertaken to help repay a promoter-level loan, the company said in a statement.
These shares represented about 0.6% equity in the company and were sold at an average price of Rs 34.99 apiece. As of September, Bhavish Aggarwal held a 30.02% stake in the company, exchange data shows.
The company said it will repay the Rs 260 crore loan, against which Aggarwal had previously pledged 3.93% of his Ola Electric shares. This will help release the pledged shares.
Post the transaction, the promoter group will continue to hold about 34% in the Roadster maker with no solution of promoter control.
“This action is taken to eliminate all promoter pledges, which can introduce avoidable risk and volatility. It is part of the founder's conviction that Ola Electric should operate with zero pledge overhang, and he should fully unwind the leverage,” the statement said.
Aggarwal had, on multiple occasions, pledged shares held in Ola Electric to secure funding for his artificial intelligence venture, Krutrim. In recent times, the AI company has undertaken layoffs and seen a string of senior executive exits.
The deal comes at a notable time. Shares of Ola Electric had hit a 52-week low of Rs 33.17 apiece on December 12th. Its shares closed at Rs 34.5 apiece, down 7.7% as of Tuesday.
Moreover, the company is also struggling to bring back the momentum it once had in the electric two-wheeler market. In November, Ola Electric’s sales hit a three-year low, selling only 7,567 units and capturing a mere 7.2% of the EV market share.
This has, in turn, bit into the company’s top-line growth. In the three months ended September 30, the company reported a 43.1% decline in its quarterly revenue to Rs 690 crore compared to Rs 1,214 crore in the year-ago period.
(Disclaimer: Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory, is an independent director in Ola Electric)
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti