Why Bhavish Aggarwal Sold Shares — And Why It Wasn’t an Exit

Why Bhavish Aggarwal Sold His Shares — And Why the Popular Narrative Is Wrong

The news broke quickly and spread even faster. On December 16–17, 2025, Bhavish Aggarwal — co-founder and chairman of Ola Electric Mobility Ltd. — sold approximately 2.6 crore shares worth about ₹92 crore in a bulk deal, with the stock trading near ₹34, close to its all-time low.

That was all it took.

The stock is down nearly 60% year-to-date. Service issues have dented trust. Retail investors are anxious. So the conclusion felt automatic: the founder is cashing out because he sees the end coming.

It’s a neat story. It feels emotionally accurate.
It is also factually wrong.

When you look past the headline and examine the mechanics behind the transaction, the move reveals discipline — not desertion.

“The founder didn’t cash out. He took risk off the table.”

The Financial Context the Market Missed

Bhavish Aggarwal did not sell shares to walk away from Ola Electric. The transaction was tied to a personal borrowing arrangement created to fund Krutrim AI, a separate venture.

Over the last year, Bhavish had raised a personal loan of about ₹260 crore. To secure that loan, he pledged a portion of his Ola Electric shareholding to lenders, including Axis Trustee and Aditya Birla.

As Ola Electric’s stock price continued to slide, the value of the pledged shares eroded. To keep the loan adequately secured, Bhavish was forced to top up the pledge three times over the past year.

This is where the real story begins — not with selling, but with risk.

“Pledged shares don’t look dangerous — until the stock keeps falling.”

The Risk Hidden Inside Pledged Shares

Pledged shares are among the least understood elements of founder finance.

Here’s how the risk plays out:

When a founder pledges shares and the stock price keeps falling, lenders issue a margin call. The borrower must either repay part of the loan or pledge additional shares.

If neither happens, lenders step in and sell the pledged shares in the open market.

That selling is forced, rapid, and indifferent to price. It triggers panic, drags the stock lower, and often sets off a chain reaction of further selling. Once it starts, it’s hard to stop.

For Ola Electric — already under pressure from weak sentiment and execution challenges — this was not a theoretical risk. It was an active and growing one.

“This is how stocks enter a death spiral — quietly, then suddenly.”

What Actually Happened

The share sale was not an exit.
It was a reset.

Bhavish sold ~₹92 crore worth of shares. Alongside that, he infused roughly ₹170 crore from his own funds. Together, this allowed him to repay the entire ₹260 crore loan in one go.

The immediate outcomes were clear:

• The loan was closed
• The pledged shares were released
• The risk of margin calls and forced selling disappeared

This was not a founder “cashing out.” It was a founder absorbing pain early to prevent a bigger collapse later. Instead of allowing lenders to dump shares into a fragile market, Bhavish chose to clean up the structure himself.

“He didn’t protect the share price. He protected the structure.”

What This Means for Investors

This move does not fix operational issues overnight. It does not magically lift the stock price. It does not erase past mistakes.

But it does remove one of the most dangerous overhangs a stock can carry: the threat of forced selling by lenders.

Markets don’t just price performance — they price risk. And in this case, a significant risk tied to Ola Electric’s stock was quietly taken off the table.

The loud narrative says the founder is running.
The quieter reality says the founder reduced leverage and uncertainty at a critical moment.

“Emotion makes headlines. Structure decides outcomes.”

What’s Next for Ola Electric and Investors

Investors now see a cleaner ownership structure, with the overhang of pledged shares removed and a key source of forced-selling risk addressed. This strengthens governance visibility and reduces the likelihood of sudden, non-fundamental price dislocations. However, this development does not alter the underlying business risks that continue to shape the company’s outlook. Ola Electric remains exposed to execution challenges, competitive intensity in the EV market, service quality issues, and ongoing losses, all of which will influence long-term performance. With promoter-level balance-sheet risk reduced, future stock movement is expected to reflect operational outcomes and financial discipline rather than changes in narrative or sentiment.

Attribution:
This article is inspired by and based on a financial analysis shared by Jayant Mundhra in a LinkedIn post, combined with publicly available disclosures and independent editorial interpretation by TICE News.