GQG Sells 2.91% of ITC for ₹9,395 Crore in Block Deals

US-based GQG Partners has sold a 2.91% stake in ITC Ltd through a series of block deals worth ₹9,395.44 crore. Domestic mutual funds, insurers and a Fidelity fund took up the shares. The trades went through on Thursday, 8 October. They rank among the largest single-stock exits by a foreign investor on Indian bourses this year, and they came with the cigarettes-to-FMCG conglomerate already trading near its lowest levels since 2022.

According to bulk and block deal data on BSE, cited by Upstox and Kotak Neo, GQG sold 36,50,84,221 ITC shares in 14 tranches at an average price of ₹257.35 apiece. In a separate transaction, UK investment trust Alliance Witan sold 16.11 lakh shares for ₹41.46 crore. That took the day’s combined block-deal value in the counter to roughly ₹9,437 crore.

Who bought the ITC shares

An arm of Fidelity was the largest buyer, picking up about 13.4 crore shares (roughly 1.07% of the company) for ₹3,448.49 crore. Reports name the entity differently: Kotak Neo calls it Fidelity Advisor Overseas Fund, while Upstox describes it as an arm of Fidelity International.

Indian institutions made up most of the rest. Kotak Neo reported that ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund bought about 9.4 crore shares for ₹2,419.37 crore and SBI Mutual Fund about 3.76 crore shares for ₹967.74 crore. Nippon India Mutual Fund bought about 2.7 crore shares for ₹696.06 crore.

Kotak Mahindra, Mirae Asset, Aditya Birla Sun Life and Edelweiss mutual funds also bought shares, as did ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Bajaj Life. Among overseas institutions, Citigroup Global Markets Singapore, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas and Ghisallo were listed as buyers. Amounts for these were not disclosed in the reports.

The exchange data did not give a reason for the sale, and GQG had not commented publicly at the time of writing.

ITC stock at multi-year lows

The supply weighed on the stock. ITC closed 4.03% lower at ₹255 on the NSE on Thursday and at ₹254.05 on the BSE. Kotak Neo reported this as its lowest close since June 2022. The shares recovered some ground on Friday morning and were up about 1.9% at ₹259.95 in early trade.

Even so, the stock has lost nearly 30% so far in 2026 and 15.7% over six months, according to Upstox. Kotak Neo put it about 49% below its record high of ₹498.95, set in September 2024. The slide has been driven largely by higher taxation on cigarettes, which still account for the bulk of ITC’s profits, and by rising commodity costs.

A steady GQG retreat from India

The ITC sale continues a pattern. GQG, founded by Rajiv Jain, was among the most prominent foreign backers of Indian large caps in recent years. It has been paring its India book through 2026.

Upstox reported that in April, GQG sold nearly 1% of ITC Hotels for ₹197 crore. In May, it sold Adani Enterprises shares worth ₹1,435 crore and Adani Green Energy shares worth ₹960 crore. In June, it sold 1.8% of GMR Airports for ₹1,906 crore. Across the June quarter, its sales of Adani group stocks crossed ₹12,000 crore.

At the end of June, ITC’s shareholding pattern showed GQG’s emerging markets fund holding 1.06% of the company. A separate Goldman Sachs fund managed by GQG held another 2.06%. A filing dated 6 October showed that GQG and its affiliates together had trimmed their ITC holding from 3.48% to 3.17% between May 2025 and October 2026. The reports do not set out which GQG vehicles sold on Thursday, or how much GQG still owns after the deals. The quarterly shareholding pattern due later this month should clarify that.

Why the deal matters for investors

Three things stand out for market participants.

The first is the direction of flows. Foreign investors have been cautious on Indian equities this year, with US bond yields at multi-year highs and Brent crude trading around $100 a barrel. The ITC trade shows the pattern of the year. A large overseas holder sold, and domestic mutual funds, which are backed by steady SIP inflows, and insurers took up most of the supply. That domestic buying has repeatedly cushioned the market against sharp FPI exits.

The second is the overhang. ITC has no promoter, so its register consists entirely of institutional and public shareholders, and a large fund reducing its holding can hang over the stock for months. With a big part of GQG’s position now placed with long-only domestic and foreign funds, that pressure may ease. Whether that happens depends on how much GQG has left to sell.

The third is valuation. At around ₹255, ITC trades at roughly half its 2024 peak. By buying in size on Thursday, the institutions appear to be betting that much of the tax-driven de-rating has already played out. Kotak Neo noted that Citi had upgraded the stock on 5 October, days before the block deal.

ITC is also among the heavier stocks in both the Nifty 50 and the Sensex. A sustained recovery or a further slide in the counter will have an outsized effect on the benchmarks, particularly after the Nifty touched a 52-week low earlier this month.

What happens next

The next trigger for the stock is ITC’s results for the July–September quarter, expected later this month. Investors will watch cigarette volume growth after the tax changes, margins in the FMCG business, and any commentary on input-cost inflation. The September-quarter shareholding pattern will show the new institutional mix and how much of GQG’s exposure remains.

For the wider market, the question is whether GQG keeps selling its remaining Indian large-cap holdings, and whether domestic institutions keep absorbing such supply without a sharp fall in prices. On the evidence of Thursday’s trade, they still have the appetite.