Lighthouse Sells Nykaa Shares Worth INR 335.7 Cr; Stock Slips 4.5%

Shares of beauty ecommerce giant Nykaa continued their falling streak for the second straight session on Tuesday (November 22) as Lighthouse India Fund III Limited sold the startup’s shares worth INR 335.7 Cr in a bulk deal, likely exiting the company.

Shares of Nykaa ended the day 4.5% lower from their previous close at INR 175.20 on the BSE. 

As per the latest shareholding data on the BSE, Lighthouse India Fund III held a total of 5.8 Cr shares of Nykaa, or a 2.04% stake, just after the lock-in period for pre-IPO investors expired. Following the lock-in expiry on November 10, the venture capital firm started dumping the shares in multiple bulk deals.

First, Lighthouse sold 96 Lakh shares of Nykaa, followed by selling 3 Cr shares worth INR 252.4 Cr last week. Today, the firm sold 1.8 Cr shares at INR 182 apiece.

Besides Lighthouse, several other pre-IPO investors have also sold their stakes in Nykaa since the lock-in expiry. Mala Gopal Gaonkar, TPG Capital, Narotam S Sekhsaria, and Segantii India Mauritius are some of Nykaa’s major shareholders who offloaded shares in several bulk/block deals in the last two weeks.

Reports of the possible sell-off by Lighthouse emerged yesterday, and Bank of America Corporation (BofA) was likely the banker for the deal.

After sliding over 7% last week, Nykaa shares plummeted almost 9% in two sessions this week.

At a time when several of Nykaa’s investors are dumping their stakes in the company, the startup also announced the resignation of its Chief Financial Officer Arvind Agarwal today.

After working with Nykaa for over two years and taking the startup to its IPO, Agarwal will leave on November 25 in order to pursue other opportunities.

The global macroeconomic environment has turned investor sentiment negative, with tech stocks globally and new-age tech stocks in India coming under intense pressure. Besides Nykaa, startups like Paytm and Delhivery are also seeing a sharp fall in their share prices following their respective lock-in expiries. Zomato, too, witnessed the same situation in July as its pre-IPO investors dumped the stock following the end of the lock-in period.

Last week, SoftBank sold 4.5% of its stake in fintech giant Paytm for over INR 1,630 Cr. Meanwhile, CA Swift Investments (Carlyle Group), one of Delhivery’s major pre-IPO shareholders with a stake of 5.07%, sold 2.5% of its stake or 18 Mn shares worth INR 607 Cr in a bulk deal on Monday. 

Shares of Paytm hit their all-time low of INR 474.30 on the BSE on Tuesday, while Delhivery touched a new record low for the second consecutive session. The logistics unicorn’s shares fell to INR 331.60 on Tuesday, before recovering a little to end the day at INR 334.80 on the BSE.