Mumbai: Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. is looking to sell almost half of its stake in private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, for around $300 million (approximately ₹ 2,050 crore), according to two people aware of the development.
As of 31 December, Sumitomo held a 3.58% stake in the private-sector lender, data from stock exchanges show.
“The book has been launched and the sale is expected to close overnight,” said one of the two people mentioned above, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Large domestic and foreign institutions have shown interest in buying the stake in block trade, he added.
Shares are being offered to buyers in a price range of ₹ 611.34 to ₹ 636.55 per share, according to Bloomberg. Citigroup Inc. is managing the share sale program, the report added. After the transaction, Sumitomo’s stake in the bank will fall to around 1.79%.
The Japanese bank firm had picked up a 4.5% stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank in 2010 through a preferential allotment for ₹ 1,366 crore.
Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank closed at ₹ 630.25 on the BSE, up by 2.35%, while the benchmark Sensex closed at 23,002 points, down by 0.66%, on a day the stock markets witnessed volatile trading on account of the announcement of the Union budget.
Also, on Monday, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest pension fund in the US, sold a stake worth around ₹ 870 crore (approximately $127 million) in Axis Bank Ltd, according to data at stock exchanges.
Foreign institutional investor (FII) Genesis Indian Investment Co. Ltd bought the stake (around 0.94%) at a price of ₹ 387.5 per share.
Last month Genesis bought a stake worth ₹ 318 crore in Dabur India Ltd through an open market transaction, according to information on stock exchanges. The FII bought about 12.7 million shares, or a 0.72% stake, in Dabur.
In 2015, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, had assets under management of $298 billion, according to Preqin, a private equity database.
Shares of Axis Bank closed at ₹ 375.25 on the BSE, down by 2.75%.
