Celebrity couple Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma will be getting the same returns as other shareholders of Go Digit General Insurance Ltd, said Kamesh Goyal, founder and chairman of Bengaluru-based entity operating in the non-life insurance space. Cricketer Virat Kohli and his wife and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma are individual shareholders in this seven-year old company.
“In an old recorded video conversation, I had asked Virat if he should have invested more in the company. To which he replied in the affirmative,” said Goyal who was in Ahmedabad to talk about his company’s IPO which opens on May 15.
When asked about the returns the celebrity couple are expected to draw once the company goes public, Goyal said “The returns will depend on the price of the listing. The benefit he will get will be the same for other shareholders too... If the prices fall, then he too will bear the loss like the others.” There are close to 180 individual shareholders in the company that had enrolled Virat as the brand ambassador, after he invested in the company.
In 2020, Viral Kohli had invested Rs 2 crore in Go Digit Infoworks Services Pvt Ltd for which 266,667 equity shares were allotted to him, states the red herring prospectus. Similarly, Anushka had invested ₹50 lakhs for which 66,667 equity shares were allocated to her.
“No individual shareholders are selling their shares, except two to three retail shareholders from Mumbai who have small holdings. As no other investors were ready to sell their respective stakes, we had to sell from the holding company,” Goyal said, adding that both Kohli and Sharma were not selling their shares. The offer with a face value of ₹10 per equity share is a mix of fresh issues of ₹1,125 crore and an offer for sale up to 54.77 million equity shares by promoters (Go Digit Infoworks Services Pvt Ltd) and other selling shareholders.