Reliance Industries trims stake in India's Asian Paints (updated)

Asian Paints

12/06/2025 13:04

Updates with more details, background

June 12 (Reuters) -
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries RELI.NS said on Thursday it has slashed its stake in Asian Paints ASPN.NS, selling shares worth 77.04 billion rupees ($901 million).

     India’s largest paintmaker is currently facing
potential antitrust scrutiny
, while its growth is being
challenged by aggressive new
 entrants like the Aditya Birla Group’s
Birla Opus
, as well as urban consumers
cutting back
 on discretionary spending.

Reliance Industries said that it has sold the stake through affiliate Siddhant Commercials, which until March had a 4.9% stake in the paintmaker, exchange data
showed
.

Following the sale, Reliance Industries will retain approximately 8.7 million shares, which represents a 0.9% stake in the company.

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate sold 35 million shares in Asian Paints at a price of 2,201 rupees per share, a discount to the stock's Wednesday close of 2,208.8 rupees.

On Thursday, Asian Paints ended 0.48% up, but has underperformed the benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI both this year and last year.

Last month, the Economic Times reported Reliance was looking to sell all of its 4.9% stake and exit its 17-year-old investment.

The identities of the buyers were not immediately clear and will only be ascertained later in the day when exchanges update details of the session's trade.

 (Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Nishit Navin; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair and Tasim Zahid)

 ((Nishit.Navin@thomsonreuters.com;))