Global private equity major Warburg Pincus on Tuesday sold its remaining 3.6 per cent stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank at an average price of Rs 530 apiece in a deal valued at Rs 1,400 crore, marking its exit from the private sector bank.
Significantly, this is the second time in as many months that Warburg sold its stake in the Kotak Mahindra Bank. On February 2, it sold a part of its holding (17.5 million) for $170 million through block market deals. The private equity investor had held about 44 million shares in the bank.
With an unexpected spike in the
banking and financial sector stocks in the recent past, many a foreign investor have chosen to cash out with huge premia.
When contacted Kotak Mahindra Bank chief financial officer Jaimin Bhatt told
PTI: "I know that there was block deal on the BSE and NSE today but who the buyers and the sellers can be known only by the end of the day today."
He also said there was no prior intimation from the FII about its plan to exit the bank.
Warburg could not be reached for comments.
According to the BSE bulk deal data, today's sale shares were picked up by Genesis Emerging Markets Investment Company (70.77 lakh shares for Rs 530 each) and the Genesis Group Trust for Employee Benefit Plan (66 lakh shares) at Rs 530 apiece) among others.
Market sources confirmed the development and said Kotak Institutional Advisors were the lead managers to the deal.
The deal was at over 1.2 per cent premium from Friday's closing price.
Warburg had picked up the stake in the Kotak Mahindra Bank in 2004. It could not be ascertained at what price the FII had picked up these stakes then.
This is the fifth deal since February on the back of an unexpected rally in the market. So far, the BSE Sensex has gained 11 per cent in 2011, after a bloodbath last year when it had plunged 25 per cent.
This deal comes on the heels on
Citi selling its 9.9 per cent stake in HDFC and
Khazanah Nasional of Malaysia quitting Yes Bank. Private equity Carlyle had also sold 1.3 per cent of its stake in HDFC for about $270 million (Rs 1,354 crore).
On February 8,
Temasek Holdings, the state investment group of the Singapore government, had also sold 1.4 per cent of its stake in the country's largest private lender ICICI Bank for $299 million, signalling that the foreign investors are using a the massive rally in the Sensex as an exit opportunity.
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