Private equity firm Blackstone has sold its remaining 20.50 percent stake worth Rs 4,917 crore in auto component manufacturer Sona BLW Precision Forgings (Sona Comstar). Prior to this transaction, Aureus Investment and Blackstone held 33 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively of Sona Comstar, as the auto technology company's co-promoters.
This stake sale happened via bulk deals in the open market, which saw strong demand from Foreign Institutional investors, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Domestic Mutual Funds, and Insurance companies, as per a Sona Comstar release. Marquee investors like the Government of Singapore, Fidelity, FMR, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, and HDFC MF bought shares from Blackstone in the bulk deal.
Sona Comstar offers its customers cutting-edge products that enable faster adoption of greener and safer mobility in India and globally. It is the leading global supplier of driveline solutions for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), Passenger Vehicles, Commercial Vehicles, and Off-highway Vehicles. Sona Comstar is India's leading traction motor and motor-controllers supplier to electric two-wheelers (e2Ws).
According to Amit Dixit, Head of Blackstone Private Equity in Asia, Blackstone has been part of Sona Comstar’s journey for the past five years. "Sunjay Kapur has been a terrific partner to us and our minority shareholders. The management team led by Vivek Vikram Singh has done an outstanding job in building one of India's largest electric vehicle component suppliers. The company's strategy is well set with a strong order book and business development function, its focus on innovation and new technology, and building on its excellent engineering capabilities. It will continue to be a leader in its segment and is well-placed to play an important role in the global transition to greener and safer mobility. We will always be a supporter and seek to collaborate and partner with the company going forward as we continue to evaluate investments in the energy transition theme," he added.
Sona Comstar was formed by the merger of Sona BLW and Comstar Automotive in 2019. Since then, the company has invested significantly in technology, software, capex, and people, focused on the Electric Vehicle (EV) segment, completed technological partnerships and strategic acquisitions, and went on to become one of India's largest EV component suppliers.
Sunjay Kapur, Promoter and Non-Executive Chairman of Sona Comstar, said, "I am glad to have partnered with Blackstone and very happy that this has been a successful investment for them. They helped recruit global experts to the company’s board and enabled the company to go public last year with their capital markets expertise. Moving forward, our focus remains on providing innovative products and solutions to our customers and creating value for all our stakeholders. We are delighted to welcome new marquee investors who are aligned with our mission and in the prospect of long-term shareholder wealth creation. I have complete faith in our management team which is dedicated to driving our business forward. We thank Blackstone for their support in our journey so far and look forward to continuing to work with all our investors to achieve our goals."
Ganesh Mani, Managing Director at Blackstone Private Equity, said, "The company has strong financial metrics making it the only company in the Indian public large-and-mid-cap universe with 20 percent plus metrics across revenue growth, EBITDA margin, and RoE consistently in the last five years. We are confident that the company will continue to enjoy success and we wish them the very best."