Kotak Mahindra bank founders sell 3.2% stake

Shares were bought by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Within days of it being told to cut promoter holding, private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank today said a promoter group entity has sold 3.24% stake to the Canadian Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at a premium of over 3% to trading price.

"It was a bulk deal which happened on the exchanges. We have been told that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has picked up 25 million shares in the bank...We are very pleased at this," the bank's head of group strategy Paul Parambi told PTI.

The Board paid Rs 880 per share as against the prevailing price of Rs 850-855 on the exchanges, he said.

The Uday Kotak-led bank scrip was trading at Rs 862.60 per piece on the BSE at 1301 hrs, up 0.31% to yesterday's close, with the 30-share benchmark being down marginally.

The stake sale by Kotak Trustee Company reduces the promoter shareholding to 40.33%, which is slightly above the 40% mark recommended by RBI to be achieved by September this year.

"The present sale by the promoters helps us substantially meet the RBI requirement for promoter dilution by September 30, 2014," Parambi said.

The announcement comes three days after the lender said it has been asked by the sector regulator Reserve Bank of India to cut the promoter shareholding to 40% by September and to 30% by December.

The RBI wants promoters in private sector banks to scale down their holding to 10% in order to have a diverse ownership base at lenders. Each bank has submitted a plan under which it will be bringing down the shareholding.