Merrill Lynch sells over 50 lakh shares of Ansal Properties

Shares were sold for Rs 9 crore through open market

Foreign fund Merrill Lynch has sold over 50 lakh equity shares in realty firm Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd through open market for about Rs 9 crore.

In a filing to the BSE, Ansal informed that Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Espana has sold 50,82,939 shares or 3.23% stake, on March 5 through open market transactions.

As a result, Merrill Lynch's stake in Ansal has come down to 2.95% from 6.18%.

Ansal's share price was up by 1.6% to close at Rs 19.05 apiece on the BSE. At the current price, the value of shares sold come to Rs 9.68 crore.

According to the shareholding pattern as on December 2013, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Espana had 6.62% stake in Ansal Properties.

Meanwhile, in two other filings Ansal said that company's vice chairman Pranav Ansal bought 9.5 lakh shares for Rs 1.8 crore and another promoter Kusum Ansal bought 2.5 lakh shares for about Rs 48 lakh on the same day -- March 5.

Ansal is the leading real estate developer of north India. It has land bank of about 9000 acres. The company is currently developing 18 townships.

During the first nine months of this fiscal, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 42.6 crore over a revenue of Rs 1,064 crore.