L&T's Satyam share sale pulls down scrip

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has sold a third of its holding in Mahindra Satyam, or 27.24 million shares, for Rs 306.54 crore, taking the software company’s share price down by 6.6 per cent, the biggest fall in five months.

Of these, Japanese institutional investor Nomura bought about 22 million shares in a block deal on Friday.

This transaction at Rs 112.52 a share, about 4.2 per cent discount to Thursday’s closing price of Rs 117.45, has pulled down the scrip, but the entry of Nomura is expected to inject fresh hope into investors of Mahindra Satyam, said a Mumbai-based analyst.

The engineering giant, which was holding 81.13 million shares, or a 6.9 per cent stake, had bought shares at an average of Rs 82 in two transactions early this year.

Considering the average purchase price, L&T would have booked a profit before tax of Rs 83 crore, said analysts.

As the complete exit of L&T would burden it with higher capital gains tax, further offloading would take place only in the next quarter, said banking sources.

When asked about the usage of the sale funds, company sources said it would be kept for future investments that include acquisitions in the information technology sector.

However, they denied the rumours that L&T was looking to takeover software major Patni Computers.

L&T acquired a stake in Hyderabad-based software maker in the run-up to an auction of a 31 per cent stake. Tech Mahindra, a Mahindra & Mahindra group company, had outbid L&T in the takeover battle.

Under the bid guidelines L&T had to retain its stake in Satyam Computer for six months. This ended on October 13, leading to the first offloading.