Adar Poonawalla Exits Panacea Biotec; Offloads Entire Stake For Rs 118 crore

Poonawalla sold 31,57,034 scrips held in the firm at a price of Rs373.85 per share, taking the total deal value to Rs118.02 crore

New Delhi: In a latest update, the vaccine maker Serum Institute of India's CEO Adar Poonawalla sold his entire stake in Panacea Biotec amounting to 5.15 per cent shareholding of the firm for Rs118 crore, through an open market transaction.

Based on the BSE block deal data, Poonawalla offloaded 31,57,034 scrips held in the firm at a price of Rs373.85 per share, taking the total deal value to Rs118.02 crore, as per the news agency PTI.

Although the shares were picked by SII at the same price, through a separate transaction. According to the shareholding data for March 2021 quarter, both Poonawalla and SII were public shareholders in the firm and held 5.15 per cent and 4.98 per cent stake in Panacea, respectively.

Shares of Panacea Biotec on Monday closed at Rs384.9 apiece, 1.16 per cent higher over the previous close. In a separate development, Sarda Mines sold shares worth ₹227.66 crore in Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.

Over 52.74 lakh scrips were offloaded at the price of Rs431.62 apiece.

Earlier this month, Poonawalla disclosed that he is facing immense pressure from "some of the most powerful people in India" demanding supplies of Covishield. In an interview with The Times, Poonawalla said that everything falls on his shoulders when it comes to delivering the Covid vaccine to millions in India.

The company also announced investing over Rs2,400 crore in the UK, to make vaccines, among other things. The announcement was made by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who indicated that the investment would be across manufacturing facilities, clinical research, a sales office and production.