Indiabulls group stocks tumble 20%; Lakshmi Vilas Bank slides 8%

Indiabulls Group stocks came under heavy pressure in the late morning deals on Wednesday. Indiabulls Housing Finance tumbled as much as 20 per cent to Rs 488 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) while shares of Indiabulls Ventures and Indiabulls Real Estate ,too, plunged up to 20 per cent. 

The stocks, however, pared some losses and at 12:05 pm, the stock of Indiabulls Housing Finance was trading at Rs 527, down nearly 14 per cent while Indiabulls Ventures was ruling 13 per cent lower at Rs 226. Indiabulls Real Estate was down 15 per cent at Rs 96 apiece on BSE. In comparison, the benchmark Nifty50 index was trading 31 points or 0.27 per cent higher at 11,723.

Last week, most of the Indiabulls Group stocks came under pressure after a plea was filed in the Supreme Court on June 10, seeking legal action against Indiabulls Housing Finance, Sameer Gehlaut and the directors for the alleged misappropriation of public money.

However, on June 13, Abhay Yadav, the petitioner, withdrew the writ petition in Supreme Court. In an affidavit, Yadav had said that he was not aware of the contents and allegations mentioned in the complaints or the petition, according to Indiabulls.

Earlier this month, Bengaluru-based property developer Embassy Group announced acquisition of Indiabulls Real Estate's promoters'stake at an estimated enterprise value of around USD 1 billion. 

In an interview with Business Standard, Parthasarathi Mukherjee, Lakshmi Vilas Bank's (LVB) director and chief executive officer, said the merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) with Indiabulls Housing Finance will see the coming together of entities whose origins could not have been more different. CLICK TO READ FULL INTERVIEW

"The Chennai-headquartered bank was set up in 1926 in the Karur district of Tamil Nadu to cater to the interests of the local community while Indiabulls Housing, set up in 2005, was imagined to suit the needs of the largely urban population. It will be some time before the Reserve Bank of India gives its blessings to the transaction (if at all)," the report added. 

Shares of Lakshmi Vilas Bank also took a hit during the session. At the time of writing this report, the stock was trading at Rs 55.50 apiece on NSE, down nearly 8 per cent.