FTIL sells stake in MCX-SX

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and 12 others buy stake

Financial Technologies (India) Limited, or FTIL, on Tuesday announced the sale of its five per cent stake in MCX-SX to ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, along with 12 others, in a deal amounting to over Rs 88 crore.  

In a statement released late on Tuesday evening, FTIL said the stake-sale worth Rs 88.419 crore included 2.7 crore shares and 56.2 crore warrants.

While the share and warrant purchase agreement is with Jhunjhunwala alone, separate warrant purchase agreements have been signed with Edelweiss Financial Services, Trust Investment Advisors, Derive Instruments and other individual investors.   

FTIL had earlier missed an August 9 deadline to dilute its stake in MCX-SX after SAT upheld an order passed by Sebi deeming FTIL not 'fit and proper' to hold stake in an exchange. Upon missing the deadline, FTIL had written to the regulator asking for more time until they found a suitable buyer. In March, Sebi had declared FTIL as not "fit and proper" after an FMC order that had declared FTIL unfit to hold stake in a commodity exchange.

"Post completion of the above said transaction, the company would have completely exited MCX-SX," said the statement from FTIL.  The sale would be subject to regulatory approvals, it said. Before the announcement, FTIL and MCX each held five per cent stake in MCX-SX. Including the convertible warrants, their combined holding amounted to 72 per cent. MCX continues to hold stake in MCX-SX.

Recently, MCX had written to Sebi requesting permission to maintain its stake in MCX-SX and MCX-SX CCL citing that MCX and FTIL were no longer persons acting in concert.