British American Tobacco (BAT) has set the stage to sell about 2.3% of its holding in Indian conglomerate ITC Ltd through a block deal worth about $1.36 billion. The sale will involve selling up to 290 million shares at a base price of ₹400 ($4.69) a share. Even with this cut, BAT will still be ITC’s biggest shareholder, controlling 23.1% of the company .
The sale is the latest following BAT’s earlier 2024 sale when it disposed of a 3.5% ITC stake for around \\$2 billion, representing one of India’s biggest block deals. The proceeds from the sale are to support BAT’s current share buyback program, which has been boosted by £200 million to £1.1 billion (\\$1.49 billion) for 2025.
BAT’s move is consistent with its plan to maximize shareholder returns in the context of modest expected growth in revenue, driven by tax pressures in countries such as Bangladesh and Australia. The company stressed that the transaction is not anticipated to affect its full-year financial outlook.
While BAT has confirmed that it is proceeding with the block deal, it added that the deal is subject to market conditions and there is no guarantee of completion. The company has not revealed further information about the timeline or prospective buyers of the stake .
