Carlyle Group, a private equity company, will sell its entire stake in SBI Cards & Payments Services Ltd in a block deal for up to Rs 2,558 crore, reported Moneycontrol.

CA Rover Holdings, a Carlyle subsidiary that had 29.20 million shares or a 3.09% holding in SBI Cards as of the December 2021 quarter, would sell its entire stake in the company through the block deal.

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According to Bloomberg, the shares are being offered between Rs 851.50 and Rs 876.75 a share, reflecting a nearly 3% discount on the current market price. Citigroup is acting as the deal’s sole book-running manager.

SBI Cards began operating as a joint venture with GE Capital Corp. in 1998. Carlyle acquired a 26% stake in SBI Cards from GE Group in 2017 for Rs 2,000 crore. It also made a part exit in the SBI Cards IPO, which went public in March 2020. Since then, the private equity group has steadily cut its holdings.

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SBI Cards settled at Rs 876.75 on the BSE on Monday, up 0.66% from the previous close, while India’s benchmark Sensex surged 2.25% to 60,611.74 points.

SBI Cards and Payment Services reported an 84% increase in net profit to 386 crore for the December 2021 quarter, owing to increased card usage, a decrease in bad loans, and more income from other sources.

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In the same period last year, the pure-play credit card issuer promoted by the country’s largest lender SBI made a net profit of 210 crore. SBI Cards stated in a release that total sales increased by 24% to 3,140 crore from 2,540 crore in the same period in 2020-21.

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According to SBI Cards, the rise in income was mostly attributable to greater income from fees and services throughout the quarter. The company’s asset quality improved as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declined to 2.40% of gross credit in the third quarter of 2020-21, down from 4.51% in the third quarter of 2020-21.